CHAPTER III. 



COLLECTING BIRDS, THEIR NESTS, AND EGOS. 







Collecting Birds. With few exceptions, the plumages of the birds 

 of the eastern United States are well known to science. You will col- 

 lect them, therefore, purely for the purpose of self-education. To this 

 end it is not necessary that you should acquire the large series of speci- 

 mens found in museums. From two to five specimens of each kind 

 are enough, and when through their medium you have become famil- 

 iar with the appearance of the species they represent, use the gun only 

 to add to your list of acquaintances. If you wish to make a detailed, 

 critical study of changes in the plumage of species due to age, sex, or 

 season, or to compare some apparently abnormal specimen, visit the 

 nearest museum, the collections of which should be accessible to every 

 earnest student. 



Our eastern birds have been measured and described, their varia- 

 tions noted and recorded, and there is little left to learn in study- 

 ing their skins from a local standpoint. What we want now is knowl- 

 edge of the living, not the dead, bird. A thoroughly exhaustive 

 account of the habits of any one of our commonest birds is still to be 

 written. Remember, then, that collections are a means, not the end, 

 of ornithological research. 



When armed and ready for the field, you should have a canvas 

 hunting-coat, a pair of field- or opera-glasses, a fisherman's basket or 

 "creel," a discarded octavo pamphlet or catalogue of rather heavy 

 paper, cotton, a small bottle of corn-meal, and a 16-bore shot-gun 

 with a 0-32 auxiliary barrel, and the necessary complement of shells. 

 The auxiliary barrel can be purchased of dealers in natural history 

 supplies ; it should not exceed ten inches in length. The shells for 

 it should be of brass, center-fire, and strong enough to stand reloading 

 many times. Load them with fine, black rifle powder and No. 12 shot 

 about three fifths powder and two fifths shot. For killing birds 

 from the size of a Blue Jay downward they will be effective at a dis- 

 tance of twenty to twenty-five yards. In other words, fully three 

 fourths of your shooting will be done with them. Of 16-bore shells 



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