56 



THE OOLOGIST 



3 Horned Grebe. Several flocks 



scattered over lake. 

 1 Western Grebe. In large num- 

 bers. 

 9 Black-throated Loon. One seen 

 on wing. 

 221 American Coot. Several nests of 



these were taken. 

 331 Marsh Hawk. One seen flying 

 along the shore. 

 This finished the day , which was 

 thoroughly enjoyed. We saw a num- 

 ber of other birds which we could not 

 identify, owing to the distance we 

 were away from them. 



If the Editor will be good enough to 

 publish this account I will send in 

 some more notes of birds I have come 

 in contact with in this Providence. 



I am going out on a trip this spring 

 and I will be glad to offer some of the 

 information I may gain, for the bene- 

 fit of the readers of THE OOLOGIST. 



Gus Crossa. 

 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 



Oologists of the Future. 

 Audubon societies all over these 

 United States have for some years 

 past been using every means to sup- 

 press the oologists, and with such sue 

 cess that these devoted students of 

 the natural sciences, among the young- 

 er men, are becoming rare. The only 

 excuse for attack is that they destroy 

 the birds. Some of the older egg col- 

 lectors think they have been unrea- 

 sonably persecuted, for be it known 

 that the average collector does not 

 take many specimens. Neither does 

 he waste them. But even this poor 

 prop has been knocked from under the 

 Audubon Platform during the past 

 year, for birds in many parts of the 

 country are becoming so numerous as 

 to be a serious nuisance and there is 

 now absolutely no reason why the 

 oologist should not take what speci- 

 mens he needs even if there ever was 



one. Here in my home town of West 

 Chester, the Crow Blackbirds come in- 

 to town by the thousands. Roosting 

 on our trees, their droppings make the 

 streets impassible for foot passengers 

 in one district. Over in Chester Val- 

 ley, some fifteen miles from here, is 

 a Crow roost made up of probably thir- 

 ty thousand individuals, and there is 

 absolutely no danger of oologists ex- 

 terminating them. 



Last Sunday I read in the papers 

 that ducks and geese were so numer- 

 ous in Washington and Oregon that 

 farmers had to go to the expense all 

 the season of hiring men to keep the 

 birds off the wheat fields. I have seen 

 on the Sacramento meadows hundreds 

 of acres so covered with geese that 

 you could not see the ground between 

 their bodies. On our own Delaware 

 marshes and also on Long Island 

 Sound the ducks are there now 

 simply in myriads. Here in Pennsyl- 

 vania all fall the fields and lowlands 

 have been simply alive with Chicka- 

 dees, a thousand times as many as 

 there were five years ago. 



And take the birds in general, they 

 are nearly all of them much more 

 numerous than in years past. Is there 

 any reason for suppressing the oolo- 

 gist? I can see none. It is time to 

 call a halt in this bossing of the Au- 

 dubon societies. This country seems 

 to have gone crazy on the bossing bus- 

 iness. The women want to boss us 

 at the polls; the temperance people 

 want to boss us when we get thirsty, 

 the national Congress wants to boss 

 the trusts and banks; the doctors and 

 the legislatures want to boss us with 

 their eugenic laws; and now after fifty 

 years of patient study we are stopped 

 from collecting eggs when we need 

 them. Say, I am going to move out 

 if this thing keeps on. 



R. P. Sharpies, 



