OOLLECTIN^G AND PREPAKING BIRDS' EGGS. 119 



CHAPTER XX. 



COLLECTING AND PREPARING BIRDS' EGGS. 



A cabinet of eggs, varpng in size and color, forms 

 one of the most interesting collections of nature. Stu- 

 dents of oology are found in all lands, and number many 

 enthusiastic ladies. Eggs are more difficult to procure 

 than birds and animals, lodged as they generally are in 

 cliffs, marshes, and tree-tops, or hidden in treacherous 

 banks, hollow stumps, thick grass, and rushes. 



To be successful, one must closely watch the move- 

 ments of birds, and diligently search for their nests. Indi- 

 viduals of the same species often vary in their mode of nest- 

 ing. The wood-duck builds its nest in a hollow tree. 

 Other closely related species build nests on the ground. 

 The worm-eating warbler selects terra-firma, and still 

 other warblers build in trees and bushes. On the 

 islands in the Bay of Fundy, herring gulls breed in trees ; 

 in other localities, the nest of this bird is found on the 

 ground. Some species build their nests both in the trees 

 and on the ground, such as the marsh-hawk, short-eared 

 owl, brown thrush, swamp black-bird, Carolina dove, 

 etc. There is one species (the cow-bunting) which never 

 builds, but deposits its eggs in the nests of other birds 

 much smaller than itself, such as the vireo's, sparrow's, 

 and warbler's. I have a nest of Vireo olivaceus contain- 

 ing but one egg of the vireo and three of the large brown 

 eggs of the cow-bunting. The shiftless bunting never 

 assists in incubation or feeding the young, but leaves the 

 industrious little vireo to satisfy the ravenous appetites 

 of a family of usurpers. 



Larks, waders, snipe, woodcock, quail, and grouse, 

 make their nests on the ground. The chimney swallow 

 lays its eggs in a skeleton nest of dead twigs, glued to- 



