82 THE NIDOLOGIST 
Fringilla hudsonia 1s very, very wide of the 
mark for a name; and that moreover, in ad- 
dition to the species he knew and described, 
there were now no less than seven other species 
known, and seven subspecies, making /i/teen 
in all, and that they ranged over nearly the 
whole of the North American continent? He 
would most assuredly be somewhat dazed at 
first, not knowing what a “ Junco”’ was; much 
less what a swdspecies was ; and having very 
dim notions as to what was meant by the North 
American continent, his discomfiture would 
be quite complete when told that he had xot 
described more than three hundred of our 
birds, and that according to the Check-List of 
the American Ornithologists’ Union, published 
in 1895, there were no less than 1 062 species 
and subspecies of birds known to this country(!), 
and very likely a few more still remained to be 
described. But America has never known a 
more charming writer about our birds than 
Wilson was, and his account of ¢##e Snowbird 
is a most excellent one. Like all his work it 
is Honest, and his descriptions exhibit the in- 
fluence of his trained mind and intellect, and 
are quite bereft of all flowery passages or the 
evidences of an overenthusiastic bent. His 
work is also a/7 Wilson, and when we read it, 
we do not eternally feel that there is some one 
constantly standing behind him to keep him 
informed in classification and bird-structure. 
He made no pretensions of knowing much of 
either, and he was too proud to duy any part of 
his knowledge and then try and get the world 
to believe afterward that he had gained it 
through his own observations. 
In one place in his account he says: “In 
some parts of New England I found the 
opinion pretty general, ‘that the Snowbird 
in summer is transformed into the small Chip- 
ping Sparrow, which we find so common in 
that season. I had convinced a gentleman of 
New York of his mistake in this matter, by 
taking him to the house of a Mr. Gautier there, 
who amuses hiniself by keeping a great number 
of native as well as foreign birds. This was 
in the month of July, and the Snowbird ap- 
peared there in the same colored plumage he 
usually has. Several individuals of the Chip- 
ping Sparrow were also in the same apartment. 
The evidence was, therefore, irresistible; but, as 
I had not the same proofs to offer to the eye 
in New England, I had not the same suc- 
cess.” Wilson had some peculiar ideas about 
the migrations of Snowbirds, that make in 
his account very interesting reading, es- 
pecially when compared with our modern 
views upon the migrations of the members of 
this class. 
January 16, 1896. 
Valuations of Nests and Eggs. 
CoMMENT on “ TayLor’s STANDARD AMER- 
ICAN EGG CATALOGUE.” 
HE compilation of a “ Standard American 
Egg Catalogue,’ to be used as a guide 
for Odlogists in the exchange of nests and 
eggs of North American birds, has just been 
completed by the writer with the valuable as- 
sistance of A. M. Ingersoll, A. W. Anthony, 
Thomas H. Jackson, J. H. Bowles, Rev. P. B. 
Peabody, C. W. Crandall, C. Barlow, Dr. A. C. 
Murchison, and other well-known Odlogists, 
some of whom have been actively engaged in 
field work and the exchanging of eggs for fully 
fifteen or twenty years, and are, therefore, fully 
qualified to adjust with accuracy an equitable 
scale of valuations for exchangers. 
The unthinking might hastily imagine that to 
alter prices would be a matter of perfect ease, 
but the task in this case has required the most 
patient application and careful consideration, 
digging into books of reference, and giving 
due weight to every factor which might affect 
the exchange yaluation of one egg in relation to 
another—for the prices are all ve/atve, and 
must be as nearly in fair proportion as is pos- 
sible. 
In very many respects the compiler believes 
the Catalogue under discussion will be greatly 
appreciated by Odlogists. It is the first one 
ever issued éy collectors for collectors. Dealers’ 
catalogues have confounded cash valuations with 
exchange valuations, and have-in some cases 
priced rare species so low that they have laid 
themselves open to the charge of having private 
motives for doing so. 
All price lists preceding the present Cat- 
alogue have perpetuated the most absurd er- 
rors, putting a value on eggs that are mot yer 
discot ered, as Spoon-bill Sandpiper, Solitary 
Sandpiper, etc. ; while some compilers have 
even priced eggs of extinct birds in this same 
amiable, misleading way. Other eggs extremely 
rare, or perhaps represented by only a few spec- 
imens in the United States National Museum, 
have been priced as low as much commoner 
species. The eggs of the Little Brown Crane, 
which breeds in the Arctic regions, have been 
valued at $5; but who is so fortunate as to . 
have a set to exchange at that figure? Numer- 
ous rare Sandpipers’ eggs have heretofore been 
slapped down at a nominal $2. Of course one 
may not hear of a set (outside of a government 
expedition) in ten years—but is it not as well, 
while assuming to publish a “standard” price 
list to fix the sum, just as a matter of informa- 
tion, at a higher rate than eggs represented in 
hundreds of collections? By the time a score 
of good collectors get to traversing the frozen 
