HE # OOLOGIST> 



VOL. VI [I. 



ALBION, N. Y.. JULY, 1891. 



Some Florida Notes. 



Where is there a collector in the 

 United States Avho has not a strong de- 

 sire to visit Florida and add rare birds 

 and eggs to his collection? For oyer a 

 quarter of a century the writer has 

 longed for a chance to go there and 

 ■spend a few of the winter and spring 

 months, and during the past season I 

 Was gratified in my great desire. It 

 occured to me that some of the readers 

 of the Oologist would like to hear 

 something of that land and of its crea- 

 tures, and though I cannot occupy suffi- 

 cient space in the valuable columns to 

 give much of an idea of the country, I 

 can still offer a few suggestions and 

 draw a few comparisons, which to the 

 wise will certainly be worth consider- 

 ing, and I may add. a little advice to 

 those who contemplate a trip there. 



Bald Eagles breed in abundance in 

 Florida, but a number of full-sized 

 young, which I saw in late February, 

 led me to think that the eggs were laid 

 in December, according to general re- 

 port. Brown Pelicans and several 

 species of Herons breed in immense 

 colonies and the eggs may be gathered 

 till one is tired, however, the majority 

 of species of birds use the same precau- 

 tions to hide their nests that they do at 

 the north, and I often thought were 

 even more careful to conceal them. 

 Even with one's best endeavors, and 

 one can collect eveiy day from Febru- 

 ary first till June, not nearly as large or 

 varied series of bird's eggs can be taken 

 as at the north in the same time. 



To be sure I am now past the impul- 

 sive age of youth, still I have the same 

 boyish spirit that pressed me a score of 

 years ago. A new bird gives me as 

 "much pleasure now as then, and my in- 

 terest does not appear lessened. And 



for these reasons I was all the more dis- 

 appointed, when only 67 species of birds 

 were recorded on my note book in over 

 three month's time, and of these birds 

 52 were known to me in my native 

 state of Michigan. 



It is needless to say that very little 

 escaped my eye in any quarter I visited 

 and I traveled over 1,000 miles in the 

 state, and fro m^ the northern boundary 

 to within three degrees of the tropics 

 on the south, both on the coast and in 

 the interior. When it is a common 

 thing for me to note over seventy spec- 

 ies of birds on a spring day in Michigan 

 and I have once recorded 83 birds, the 

 largest number recorded one day,* it is 

 no wonder that disappointment should 

 result in this poor showing. 



Now it is not my intention to belittle 

 Florida in the eyes of Collectors or 

 other tourists, on the contrary it is a 

 wonderful state in many respects, and 

 as a winter resort cannot be beaten. 

 All that I am anxious to impress upon 

 my readars, many of whom have heard 

 much of the south and are very desir- 

 ous of visiting Florida, is that it is not 

 the wonderful paradise of Collectors 

 that it is claimed, and allow me to sug- 

 gest to the hundreds of oologists 

 throughout the north, that there is just 

 as much glory in working in your local 

 haunts as in trying to cover ground far 

 from home. 



The average length of time which an 

 egg collector is engaged in the Avork is 

 four or five years, to be sure a few last 

 longer and a very few stick to it for a 

 period when they may really, fairly be 

 called oologists, but these scientific col- 

 lectors are unfortunatly quite scarce, 

 the common ephemeral egg crank, who 



*One day in May 1879 we noted 88 species be- 

 tween the hours of 4 a. m. and 7 p. ni. in Ottawa 

 County, Mich. 



