108 THE OOLOGIST 
Though not large, it contained many 
very desirable specimens including, 
The nest and eggs of the Hmerald 
throated Hummingbird, and a set of 
eggs and pair of adult skins of the 
Cuban Martin from Buenos Ayres, and 
of the rare Swallow-tailed Gull (Crea- 
erus furecatus) from the Guadaloupe Is- 
lands, and of the extremely rare Kirt- 
land’s Warbler, the latter accompan- 
ied by the nest. 
With relation to this deal, a letter 
from the daughter of Mr, Worthen 
through whom the negotiations were 
carried on, in finally closing up the 
transaction, writes: 
“Mr. Barnes, I can’t tell you how 
grateful I am or how surprised as to 
your final decision as to settlement. I 
do not know how to thank you for 
your courtesy, liberality and great 
kindness to us in this affair.” 
This collection came to hand with a 
considerable number of broken spe- 
cimens and a number lacking entirely 
any data, and a number of others 
where the set marks on the eggs fail- 
ed to prove up with the data accom- 
panying them. All such specimens 
have gone into the waste heap. The 
acquisition of these eggs, some 2500 in 
number, will materially enlarge the 
number cf our rarer series, and will 
be a substantial addition to our cabi- 
nets. 
+} a 
Kill the Cowbird. 
Physicians say that the way to blot 
out dangerous diseases is to prevent 
their growth in infancy. Just as the 
White Plague is a menace to the hu- 
man race, so the cowbird is the White 
Plague to our Bird Life. 
What do they do? ‘Too shiftless to 
build nests of their own, they lay their 
eggs in nests of other birds. Not con- 
tent with one cradle for their worth- 
less young, a single cowbird will de- 
posit one or two eggs in as many as 
four different nests. It has been es- 
timated that one cowbird lays a set 
of from four to six eggs. If she de- 
posits two eggs in a nest, that means 
that, after laying a complete set, the 
female cowbird has disturbed three 
nests. 
It is no uncommon occurrence for 
these “Reprobates of Birdom” to spill 
out the eggs of the rightful owners of 
the nests in which they have layed. 
Such an occurrence was experienced 
by the writer not long ago. In fact 
the experience gave the incentive for 
this “Invective.” 
On June 18th last, the author found 
a cuckoo’s nest with two cuckoo’s 
eges in it and two cowbirds. The lat- 
ter were promptly removed as they 
always should be. On June 20th, two 
days later, the nest was again visited, 
and the cuckoo’s eggs were found 
broken, on the ground beneath the 
nest, while the structure itself held 
two cowhbirds eggs. Is it necessary 
to state that the cuckoo deserted? 
Again—A wood thrush started a 
nest not far from my home and had 
got as far as laying two eggs in it 
when she was disturbed by a cowbird 
laying also two eggs in it. The thrush 
immediately stopped laying and as her 
full set would have been four, it can 
readily be seen that the cowbird was 
responsible for the absence of the 
other two thrushes that ordinarily 
would have been born. 
We will now trace the incubation 
of the two thrushes eggs and the two 
eggs of the cowbird, as it actually 
happened. The thrushes eggs hatched 
in due time and the young promised 
to become perfect specimens of their 
tribe. Mother Thrush patiently sat 
on the two cowbird’s eggs, which did 
not hatch for three days after the 
birth of her own young, for the reason 
that they were laid approximately 
