110 



THE 00L0QI8T 



Egg collecting, as persistently car-| 

 ried out as bird killing in these, or! 

 any other sinailar cases, would event- 

 ually have exterminated the birds; 

 for if the rookeries had been robbed 

 persistently, and without a sparing 

 hand, to be sure extermination would 

 have been the inevitable result. But 

 such thing would be an absolute im- 

 possibility in the time, or a multiple 

 of the time in which was witnessed 

 the complete annihilation of the spe- 

 cies. 



Even among professional market 

 eggers, who gather hundreds of thous- 

 ands of seabirds' eggs annually, there 

 is respect for the law of reproduction, 

 and they cease their robberies in time 

 for the birds to reproduce young each 

 year. All the oologists throughout the 

 world, in a hundred years, never col- 

 lected as many seabirds' eggs as the 

 professional market eggers have gath- 

 ered in a single season, and still there 

 are millions of seabirds. But say, 

 dear reader, if these birds were being 

 killed instead of being robbed, about 

 how long do you think the breeding 

 supply could hold out? 



If the barn-yard fowls were being 

 killed as persistently as they are be- 

 ing robbed, about how long, do you 

 imagine, it would require to extermin- 

 ate this important factor in the world 

 economics? If the law of Nature, 

 pointed out in the verses of 22 Chap- 

 ter of Deutronomy (and the passage 

 is simply a citation of the law of re- 

 production), were not heeded and 

 thoroughly carried out by the human 

 race, in the case of poultry, annihila- 

 tion of one of the greatest sources of 

 food supply for the peoples of the 

 world would follow. 



The critic who takes upon himself 

 to "bellow" at the oologist, should 

 first go afield, experiment, and learn 

 of Nature and her laws! 



I Personal 



' The Oologist Editor had the pleas- 

 ure of recently entertaining at our 

 home Capt. Frank B. Eastman, of 

 whom our readers know much. It was 

 he who added to our collection our 

 first set of Great Gray Owls eggs, be- 

 side quite a number of other rarities. 

 We had a great time visiting over our 

 collection and we enjoyed much lis- 

 tening to first hand recitations of ex- 

 periences within the Arctic Circle. It 

 was a far call from Eagle, Alaska, to 

 Catnp Grant at Rockford, 111., where 

 the Captain is now located. Come 

 again. 



Geo. E. Carson of Toronto, Canada, 

 one of the foremost of Canada's wild- 

 fowl breeders and a present swim- 

 ming director of Toronto's Y. M. C. A. 

 dropped off between trains to look 

 over our assemblage of wild geese. 

 Mr. Carson has had much experience 

 with this class of birds and we ab- 

 sorbed a number of valuable ideas as 

 the result of his call which we hope 

 will be repeated. 



Raymond Graham spent some time 

 during the month of June at Cristi, 

 Texas, among the Water Birds and 

 big fish. He says, "I am catching 

 some big ones." Birds or Fish? 



CORRECTIOl>i 



Through a typographical omission 

 in "Collecting Local Bird Names," 

 OOLOGIST XXXVII, page 95, the 

 Herons local name appeared as 

 "Poke," where "Shyte-Poke" was in- 

 tended. Through this error, the in- 

 terest connected with this name was 

 lost, and for the benefit of the read 

 ers this note is added. 



Fred J. Pierce. 



