3 



THE OOLOGIST. 



tion to the examination of our speci- 

 mens except 10 admire them in a rather 

 indefinite way and when we need infor- 

 mation about them we seek the pages 

 of Davie, Coues, Ridgway and other 

 leaders of ornithology. Well as the 

 field has been worked, however, there 

 yet remains enough to be learned about 

 birds and their eggs to startle the nov- 

 ic3, and even experts will have to ad- 

 mit that the end is not yet. In all the 

 descriptions I have read of the eggs of 

 the King Rail and of the Flordia Galli- 

 nule I have been unable to distinguish 

 one from the other simply from the de- 

 scriptions, though the difference is ap- 

 parent enough to be careiuUy expressed. 

 And so the eggs of many other species 

 lack close discrimination in description, 

 and hence the winter work of the orni- 

 thologist might be profitably spent in 

 careful study of the specimens lying so 

 snugly on their downy beds in the dark 

 recesses of our cabinets. 



The re-writing of the data gathered 

 in our note-books is an important means 

 of advancing our own knowledge and 

 preserving it in more intelligible form. 

 Frequently in our hurry to dispose of 

 the fruits of our day's exertions in the 

 field we are prone to make hasty notes 

 and to abbreviate them in such a man- 

 ner that they would be unintelligible to 

 another and often difficult of transla- 

 tion by ourselves after they have "got 

 cold." In the winter when time hangs 

 heavy on our hands, the notes gathered 

 along with our specimens might be re- 

 written in better literary style, and thus 

 we would form a basis for something of 

 interest to others as well as to ourselves, 

 and should any of our fellow-collectors 

 call upon us at any time for our i otes 

 on any particular species, we would 

 have something which would be availa- 

 ble for their use and not a chaotic mass 

 of illegible materials. Every observer 

 of nature should prepare all his notes 

 as though they were being prepared for 

 immediate publication, and then if his 



materials happen to fall into the hands 

 of others, in case of his death or other 

 casualty, or by exchange, the results of 

 his observations and studies will not 

 perish with him. Some of the best pa- 

 pers lately published in the Oologist 

 were from the materials gathered by the 

 authors and left in shape to be used by 

 others after their death. 



I fear that there are too many collec- 

 tors who have no desire that their ob- 

 servations shall be of benefit to others. 

 In re&ponse to the frequently published 

 calls fo'' notes and data on certain spe- 

 cies or from particular localities, how 

 few are ready to contribute their mite 

 to the common stock. There are note- 

 books lying in undisturbed recesses 

 which might reveal matters of interest to 

 even the best informed ornithologists of 

 the country if the contents of such 

 books were brought to light. The great- 

 est barrier to the more rapid advance of 

 oological knowledge at the present time 

 is the lack of full records from all sec- 

 tions of the country. The greatest need 

 of ornithological study now is not the 

 more rapid discovery of new species or 

 more extended observations about the 

 rare species, but fuller published facts 

 about the commoner species, such as is 

 contained in hundreds of the note-books 

 whose owners never think of making 

 public their records. We need more of 

 such facts as were given us in a late 

 number of the Oologist, in the article 

 on the Spotted Sandpiper, by the gifted 

 young naturalist whose observations 

 were so suddenly terminated by acci- 

 dental death. In the preparation of a 

 modest work which [ am ambitious 

 enough to think will be worthy of pub- 

 lication when finished, I have been re- 

 peatedly struck with the meagerness of 

 the published notes on many of the com- 

 mon species. Mo.'-t of the accounts of 

 birds are based on their behavior in 

 eastern habitats. Notes from the Mis- 

 sissippi valley and from the west have 

 cmly begun to appear, tliauks tn th« 



I 



