M 



THE OOLOGIST. 



investigate and observe along the lines 

 mentioned, but wlio do not believe in 

 egg collecting; who, with aid of camera 

 and note book, observe facts and study 

 the coloration of eggs, manner of nest- 

 ing, etc., without disturbing nests or 

 eggs. 



Egg collectors, 8d class. (Not oolo- 

 gists at all, ) who collect eggs merely to 

 be collecting; amass collections, merely 

 to be amassing; whose insatiate yearn- 

 ing is to add and add without any just 

 motive, without any beneficial end. 

 This class includes the small boy who, 

 ignorant of the harm he does, collects 

 indiscriminately; but not the small boy 

 with a real desire to study and who col- 

 lects sparingly and makes good use of 

 the little he collects. 



With the present wave of bird protec- 

 tion sweeping the country and the war 

 justly waged by the Audubon society 

 being carried forcibly on, there is no 

 reason why this 3d class of so called 

 oologist8(but who are really not oologists 

 at all, but simply egg collectors) should 

 not be harshly dealt with. It would 

 simply help real oology and tend to 

 draw the distinction which is needed 

 between the collecting for scientific rea- 

 sons by oologists, and the collecting for 

 the sake of collecting by mere egg col- 

 lectors. 



John W. Daniel, Jr., 

 Washington, D. C. 



Two Odd Sets. 



The American Crow in Knox County, 

 Illinois, is an abundant bird, as it is 

 throughout the Illinois corn belt. Ev- 

 ery available timber or grove has its 

 occupants during breeding season in 

 accordance with the favorable growth 

 of the trees and the location. I do not 

 think that these birds return to the 

 same timber or grove year after year, 

 although undoubtedly may be found in 



the same neighborhood of former nest- 

 ing sites. From my observation, how- 

 ever, the second laying has invariably 

 been found to be close by the site of the 

 first nest, unless in very exceptional 

 cases. This peculiarity makes it possi- 

 ble, although not probable, that two 

 separate pairs of birds laid very excep- 

 tionally colored eggs in the same season 

 and only a few miles apart. 



There were collected on March 31, 

 1894 a set of five eggs of the American 

 Crow which have a distinct ground 

 color of light brown, showing not a 

 sign of bluish-green, spotted quite gen- 

 erally with small dots of black more 

 abundant around the large end, and an 

 occasional^ dot which might tinge on 

 purple. One egg is marked thickly 

 with around the small end, and all the 

 eggs are uniform and of the average 

 size. The bird flew off its nest on ap- 

 proach but remained nearby. The 

 nest was typical of the Crow and was 

 placed in a triple crotch of an oak tree 

 in thick timber forty feet from tbe 

 ground. 



Some two weeks later another col- 

 lector found a set of four in a timber 

 four miles to the south. The markings 

 on these eggs were more blotched and 

 decidedly more purple in color, dis- 

 tinctly brown in shade but lighter than 

 the former set and eggs average, a trifle 

 larger. Nest construction was almost 

 the same, but the second nest was situ- 

 ated nearer to the ground. A visit to 

 the site of the former nest indicated no 

 cause for a change. I looked thorough- 

 ly for a second nest but without result, 

 and I concluded both sets were from 

 the same birds. These two sets are the 

 only ones with the peculiar ground 

 color which have come to my notice in 

 that locality or elsewhere. Unmarked 

 eggs and eggs widely differing in size 

 and coloration are, however, frequently 

 found. H. M. Holland, 



San Diego, Cal. 



