280 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Dot least become a subscriber to the 

 Oologist. 



I really believe that if Philatelists 

 were aware of how I feel and think 

 when collecting and studying our birds 

 and their eggs, stamp dealei*s would 

 have to go in pursuit of another busi- 

 ness. At the out-set it is as well to re 

 mind those about to plunge themselves 

 in the most fasinating study and pas- 

 time that there is no royal road to Oo- 

 logy any more than there is to any 

 other study or amusement. 



A question will naturally be asked, 

 ■ why do people collect stamps? simply 

 this, it affords them some pleasure. 

 Nothing more or less. And why do 

 people collect and study birds and 

 their eggs? It affords them not only 

 pleasure, but study, a love of great and 

 glorious things, recreation, exercise 

 and the promotor of all things which 

 tend to make nobler manhood and 

 womanhood. 



John H. Jackson. 



El Paso, Tex. 



A Beautiful Hummingbird's Nest. 



One Sunday while sitting under one 

 of the large cypress trees on the left 

 hand side of a lane, near St. Matthew's 

 school at San Mateo, Cal., I heard a 

 buzzing noise and looking around for a 

 while I discovered a Hummingbird 

 about to alight on a twig some three 

 inches from the ground. 



As soon as it had alighted it began to 

 pick little bits of moss from the trunk 

 of the tree. When it had enough it 

 flew across the lane and into a small 

 slippery elm tree whei'e it perched on 

 a branch and began weaving the moss 

 into some hair which laid the founda- 

 tion for her nest. 



Seeing that she returned to the twig 

 to get moss every time, I thought I 

 would play her a trick, so I got some 

 cotton and put it on the ground under 

 the twig and waited to see the result. 



She soon came back for more moss 

 and when she saw the cotton she took 

 that, 



I now left her knowing that if I both- 

 ered her she would destroy her nest. 



When I came a few days later I was 

 rewarded with a beautiful white nest 

 and two eggs. 



Sherman Bagg. 



Shapes of Eggs- 



Various attempts have been made 

 says The Scientific American, to ac- 

 count for the diversity in shape seen in 

 eggs. A recent study convinces Dr. 

 Nicholsky that the difference may be 

 all traced to gravity, and he finds his 

 idea confirmed by all the eggs in the 

 zoological collection of the St. Peters- 

 burg University. He supposes that 

 pressure by the sides' of the ovary tends 

 to elongate the egg before the shell has 

 hardened. In birds which keep a ver- 

 tical position while at rest, as do the 

 falcon and the owl, the soft egg is 

 made short by the action of the weight 

 of the body against the ovarian press- 

 ure; while in birds like the grebe that 

 are nearly always swimming, the egg 

 is lengthened because the bird's weight 

 acts with the compression by the ovary. 

 The egg is made moi'e pointed at one 

 end than at the other in birds that, like 

 the guillemot, are frequently changing 

 their position — sometimes ' swimming 

 and diving, sometimes perching on the 

 rocks, etc. 



Western New York Naturalists' Association. 



The annual meeting of the Western 

 New York Naturalists' Association will 

 be held in Brockport, Thursday, Octo- 

 ber 4th. All persons interested in Nat- 

 ural Science are invited to be present 

 at the evening session which will be 

 devoted to the reading and discussion 

 of scientific papers, and exhibition of 

 colllections. 



For particulars addi'ess, 



Geo. F. Guelf, Secy. 

 Brockport, N. Y". 



