THE OOLOGIST 



9 



nest. He uttered no notes but ran up 

 and down the nearby trees so as to be 

 close to the nest. By quietly watching 

 ing I found that the loop of the bark 

 was about 5 inches wide and in all 

 about 6 or 7 inches long. All of the 

 lower part was filled with a few small 

 dry leaves, little twigs, the thickest 

 like a knitting needle protrudiag about 

 an inch on both sides of the loop, then 

 a layer of fine soft piecps of bark, and 

 interlined with plant fibers and wool 

 and fine feathers. The cup of the nest, 

 about an inch wide and four inches 

 broad, was lined with the finest and 

 softest down. To my joy the nest con- 

 tained 6 small clear white eggs, spotted 

 with reddish-brown, mostly around the 

 larger end, 3 in form of a wreath and 3 

 with large spots. I have nest and eggs 

 in my collection and prize them highly. 

 A week later I took a nest of Chicka- 

 dee containing 8 eggs, and if I find time 

 in the near future will give a descrip- 

 tion of same. As far as I know no de- 

 scription of these two species from this 

 locality has appeared in print. 



Ed. Reinecke, 

 Buffalo, NY. 



"The Oologfist's Association. 



Circulars are out relative to a pro- 

 posed meeting of the members of the 

 Oologist's Association. This meeting 

 will occur the present year if the plans 

 of its promoters are successfully car- 

 ried out, and I siocerely hope that 

 there will be a representative gathering 

 of the so-called Oologists of America. 

 Every bird lover in the United States 

 has interests at stake in this forthcoming 

 meet and all are interested in the 

 points to be discussed. 



But, Mr. Editor, there are many 

 points at variance between the true 

 lovers of birds and the so-called oolo. 

 gists, who in the main may much better 

 be called "egg collectors" and in 

 many cases "crank collectors" without 



a particle of scientific interest. 

 There are, most unfortunately, far too 

 many cheap collectors of eggs, or 

 wealthy buyers of their collections who 

 have next to no knowledge of ornithol- 

 ogy, and who think that the whole in- 

 terest centers in amassing a lot of sets 

 of bird's eggs wiih the accompanying 

 data. Out of this class of fad collectors 

 I say, if 1 had it in my power to pre- 

 vent this indiscriminate collecting of 

 eggs and amassing of large collections 

 for private use 1 should make the pow- 

 er operative at once. And let me add 

 that there are thousands of the true 

 lovers of our feathered friends in this 

 country who are anxious that congress- 

 ional action shall be taken as to the 

 protection of our birds against the fad 

 collectors of this land. Indiscrimate 

 collecting is getting altogether too com- 

 mon. It is a nuisance in the commun- 

 ity and a menace to our future prosper- 

 ity, notwithstanding that it is followed 

 under the flimsy guise of so-called sci- 

 entific collecting. 



The writer has been a collector in his 

 day, and takes pleasure in inspecting a 

 nevv find, but there are limits, and after 

 careful consideration the decision has 

 been arrived at that the matter of egg 

 collecting has been vastly overdone for 

 many, many years. I am a friend to 

 the birds and wish to promote their in- 

 terests, and this article is written with 

 the intention of appealing to the mem- 

 bers of the "Oologist's Association" as 

 well as to the masses to protect the 

 birds of this country, our friends who 

 are so much in need of protection. 



What is oology anyway? If any class 

 or set of collectors think that the com- 

 prehension of the word embraces the 

 ordinary collector of bird's eggs, they 

 are in error. Now let me express my- 

 self as to my opinion as to what con- 

 stitutes an oologist. Oology, as an out- 

 door study is a branch of ornithology, 

 and nothing more, and the man who 

 presumes to elevate it above the study 



