234 BIRD ENEMIES. 



nal still another collector describes minutely how he 

 outwitted three humming-birds and captured their 

 nests and eggs, a clutch he was very proud of. 

 A Massachusetts bird harrier boasts of his clutch of 

 the eggs of that dainty little warbler, the blue yellow- 

 back. One season he took two sets, the next five sets, 

 the next four sets, beside some single eggs, and the 

 next season four sets, and says he might have found 

 more had he had more time. One season he took, 

 in about twenty days, three sets from one tree. I 

 have heard of a collector who boasted of having taken 

 one hundred sets of the eggs of the marsh wren in a 

 single day ; of another, who took, in the same time, 

 thirty nests of the yellow-breasted chat ; and of still 

 another, who claimed to have taken one thousand sets 

 of eggs of different birds in one season. A large 

 business has grown up under the influence of this col- 

 lecting craze. One dealer in eggs has those of over 

 five hundred species. He says that his business in 

 1883 was twice that of 1882 ; in 1884 it was twice 

 that of 1883, and so on. Collectors vie with each 

 other in the extent and variety of their cabinets. 

 They not only obtain eggs in sets, but aim to have a 

 number of sets of the same bird so as to show all pos- 

 sible variations. I hear of a private collection that 

 contains twelve sets of king-birds' eggs, eight sets of 

 house-wrens' eggs, four sets of mocking-birds' eggs, 

 etc. ; sets of eggs taken in low trees, high trees, me- 

 dium trees ; spotted sets, dark sets, plain sets, and 

 light sets of the same species of bird. Many collec- 

 tions are made on this latter plan. 



