86 



THE OOLOGIST 



An Old Collecting Field. 

 By J. M. Carroll. 

 Some days ago J. J. Carroll and my- 

 self made a short visit to Refugio 

 County, Texas. For a number of 

 years J. J. Carroll visited this field 

 year by year, and studied natural his- 

 tory in it as probably in no other 

 county in the state. I myself have 

 made many visits to that county, es- 

 pecially during the nesting seasons of 

 the Raptorees, but J. J. visited it dur- 

 ing all the collecting season. It used 

 to be the best place for Caracara, 

 Black and Turkey Vultures, Krider 

 Hawks and some others of the Rap- 

 torees I ever knew, but now it could 

 never be made profitable to visit that 

 field again for the purpose of collect- 

 ing. So many changes have taken 

 place; so much of the territory has 

 been settled. Many of the ranchmen 

 have positively forbidden even a man 

 on foot and without a gun on their 

 ground. Formerly it was easy to find 

 twenty to forty pairs of Caracaras in 

 one day. During our three days' stay 

 we only saw one pair and secured no 

 eggs. Heretofore it was easy to find 

 forty sets of the various kind of birds 

 in one or two days, but during this 

 trip we found sets as follows: 326, 5 

 sest; 341, 1 set; 337a, 2 sets. The 

 Turkey Vultures were not laying. We 

 saw about three nests of the Great 

 Horned Owl, but in every instance the 

 young birds were very nearly half 

 grown. We saw one other nest of 

 the Krider Hawk but the eggs were 

 too badly Incubated to save. We 

 found, however, one new species to 

 that territory, that of the Curved-bill 

 Thrasher. In twelve to fifteen years 

 collecting in that county this is the 

 first time a nest of this species has 

 ever been found, and though it was 

 so early we found two sets with three 

 eggs each. We took only one set and 

 that was very badly incubated. The 



Mocking Birds were beginning to 

 build. The Scissor Tails were just be- 

 ginning to come in. We will probably 

 never attempt to visit that field again. 

 It was a great delight that J. J. and I 

 could have the pleasure of a little out- 

 ing together again. For a number of 

 years we were partners. He is my 

 nephew. While yet a baby he was 

 given to me to raise and we love each 

 other as dearly as father and son. 

 He no longer does any of this kind of 

 work and I have very little opportun- 

 ity for anything of the kind. Egg col- 

 lecting in Texas is nothing like what 

 it used to be. The law is now so 

 strict that it is next to impossible to 

 collect eggs at all except the Rap- 

 torees and a few others. 



It will soon be so that Caracaras can 

 not be obtained anywhere unless from 

 Mexico. The prices on those eggs 

 will have to be advanced, so also the 

 Turkey Vultures unless they are far 

 more numerous in other states than 

 in this. I strongly favor our game 

 laws in Texas for the protection of 

 our birds, but we need some amend- 

 ments which possibly may be put in 

 in the near future. As it is now, most 

 of the birds and eggs can not be col- 

 lected even for scientific purposes. 



Confusion. 



We older bird students are constant- 

 ly learning how great is the confusion, 

 in the minds of younger students, re- 

 garding questions of racial distribu- 

 tion, with birds. In part this results 

 from the expensiveness of the man- 

 uals that treat of distributional phe- 

 nomena; in part from an indifference 

 that results from isolation and lack 

 of stimuli; and in large part from the 

 multiplication of what Doctor Dwight 

 has so happily termed, "millimeter 

 races." Nevertheless, there are essen- 

 tial differences that no careful stu- 



