272 Twelve Months With 



All of these and countless other instances of 

 adaptation have doubtless been acquired through 

 many years of struggle for existence. 



March and April always bring to mind my 

 youthful days of collecting, when the hawks of a 

 small area in Northeastern Indiana must have 

 found it extremely discouraging to attempt to raise 

 their brood of small accipiters and buteos. I do 

 not recall these youthful days when my ardor for 

 collecting was at its height with feelings altogether 

 pleasurable, because I remember all too well that 

 I plundered a good many nests, and collected a 

 good many sets of hawk eggs of various kinds. 

 The Cooper, red-shouldered and red-tailed hawks 

 were the most abundant as they are still in this 

 latitude, and of these species I collected many sets 

 during March and April, in 1888 and 1889. 



But let me say a word or two in defense of col- 

 lecting. It is of course true that one of the worst 

 of the birds' enemies is that type of professional 

 egg collector, who, disgracing the respected title 

 of oologist, concentrates his purpose upon getting 

 as many sets of eggs together as possible, even to 

 securing several sets of the same species, for the 

 mere vulgar satisfaction of possessing more birds' 

 eggs than any other man on earth. He has a lust 

 for ownership, and collects eggs like some other 

 men collect dollars, just for the selfish pleasure of 

 gathering as many as possible, and parting with as 

 few as possible. 



Elbert Hubbard once said that one of the inci- 



