108 



THE OOLOGIST. 



bear me out in maintaining that the 

 Wood Thrush never sings from the top 

 of a tree. Am I not right? 



Again we find that a collector took a 

 set of Bam OwVs eggs from an old a^ple 

 tree. This is remarkable that a rare 

 bird east of the Mississippi riv.er should 

 nest in Indiana. In same article he 

 says he took another set of bam or hoot 

 owl. Anything that lives near a barn 

 and hoots is a barn hoot owl. Now my 

 dear sir you never saw a nest of Barn 

 Owl in Indiana. You are honest but 

 terribly mistaken. This correction 

 may seem hard but it is necessary or 

 the boys of Indiana will all have Bam 

 Owls eggs in a month or so 



In another excellent article, the 

 writer says he found two deserted nests 

 of Albino Marsh Wren but fails to say 

 whether the birds, eggs, or nest were 

 white. In fact were any of them white? 

 Such items are idle, unless carefully 

 substantiated with accurate data. 



Another writer says he found a nest 

 of the Swamp Sparrow which he iden- 

 tified. How did he identify the eggs? 

 Now Mr. Editor, I have outlasted sev- 

 eral generations of oologists, and have 

 never taken a set of Swamp Sparrows. 

 At least 500 nests of the Song Sparrow 

 have met my view but never yet a set 

 of Swamp. Every sparrow's nest 

 built in a marsh or swamp does not 

 constitute a Swamp Sparrows nest. 

 Let us get this identification. 



A Minnesota man saj r s he has never 

 heard the soug of the swamp sparrow, 

 although they are common there. The 

 song is heard everywhere in May, June 

 and July where the birds are found, I 

 can assure him. 



Boys, study the songs of the birds, 

 walk with caution, eyes and ears open, 

 and you will find as much pleasure in the 

 study of details in a bird's notes, move- 

 ments, etc., as if you secured a large 

 collection of eggs and knew nothing of 

 the birds and habits. Remember you 

 are but very little if any above the old- 



fashioned collector who strung his eggs 

 in festoons, if you simply collect for 

 pleasure of amassing eggs and leading 

 other collectors. The collector who 

 simply tries to gratify a fad for collect- 

 ing eggs, i&t unworthy of the name of 

 oologist, and in time surely a very few 

 years, at the most, he drops out of the 

 deal, and his once precious eggs are 

 eaten by the mice, smashed, sold, given 

 away and cast to the four winds. 



I am an egg crank, dyed in the wool 

 and come to stay, and I take as much 

 interest in birds nests now as everl did. 

 Taking three years as the average col- 

 lector's fad, and this i» reasonable, I 

 have lived and collected through ten 

 generations or ages of egg-cranks, and 

 yet my dove holds fast to the subject, 

 and I feel a deepening interest in the 

 subject because 1 have .studied my 

 friends the birds and their nests and 

 eggs. To be sure I do not feet that 

 thrill of joy, indescribable, which once 

 enthralled me, when my hand stole 

 into a nest and felt the treasures there 

 but there is a higher aud better feeliug, 

 which is au outcome of love of the 

 study, intensified by years of devotion 

 to the subject or service if you will. 



I am not trying to discourage you 

 boys. On the contrary, I want to in- 

 spire you with a rock bottom enthu- 

 siasm, a lastiug love for the study and 

 all associated with it. 1 sincerely hope 

 that those old writers to the Oologist 

 will read my lines and thereby secure 

 a new lease of life — that is a revivifi- 

 cation. I feel that intense longing 

 each and every spring for the woods, 

 and fields, and birds that I had when a 

 boy, and I am trusting to always re- 

 tain it. 



"The child is father of the man, 

 And I could wish my days might be 

 Bound each to each by natural piety." 

 But to return to the subject of criti- 

 cism, and I presume that you are all 

 inclined to berate my authority to talk 

 as I have done. 



