In North-West Canada. 195 



My next find was a nest and four eggs of the clay-coloured 

 sparrow ; the nest was built in a bush, two feet above the 

 ground, and made of dried grass, lined witli horse hair, and the 

 eggs are greenish-blue, finely spotted with brown at the larger 

 ends. 



I sat down beneath a pine tree and rested for an hour, after 

 which I got up and turned back towards Winnipeg, which was 

 nine miles away. 



On the return journey I found several clutches of king 

 birds and other common birds, such as catbird, red- winged 

 starlings, and robins, but I did not take these, as I had pre- 

 viously collected several sets, and do not believe in taking 

 every eg^ that comes in one's way. Had I taken all the eggs 

 I found while in the North-West, I should have returned home 

 with five times as manj^ as I did. Take coots, for instance, 

 out of some thirty odd clutches I found at Long Lake, I only 

 took three clutches. At Rush Lake I could have collected 

 close upon five hundred eggs of the avocet, and I felt some- 

 what greedy on afterwards counting the eggs to find I had 

 taken over one hundred specimens. Young collectors, when- 

 ever you come across a heronry or gullery, don't take every 

 egg that comes in your way, be satisfied Avith a few clutches, 

 sufficient to show the variation in size, colour and marking's 

 and if you want a few duplicates to trade ofi", l)e satisfied with 

 a limited number of sets, and don't carry off hundreds of eggs 

 of one kind. Great care should also be taken not to take eggs 

 that are advanced in incubation, which the collector will pi'ob- 

 ably find useless when he gets home and begins to 1:)low them. 

 I have heard of young collectors visiting a gullerj- and taking 

 away a large basketful of eggs, and on reaching home, finding 

 the greater number could not be blown — had to throw them 

 away as useless. For years I have made it a practice to try 

 one egg out of every clutch when incubation had started, and 

 on finding the egg could not be prepared decently, I have 

 always left the remaining eggs in the nest, unless the species 

 happened to be very rare, and then a second class set is better 

 than none at all. Young collectors should also never take 



