THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



Vol. 1. No. 5. GAINES, N. Y., SEPT., 1884. 



( Published Monthly. 

 1 50c. Per Year. 



BIRD-NESTING. 



Pursuit of Novelties in Eggs and 

 Birds— The System Most in Vogue. 



The San Francisco Gall says: There 

 are at present on this coast two gentlemen 

 whose names are widely known through- 

 out the world to persons who are interes- 

 ted in the subject of ornithology. Others 

 there are among our population who have 

 devoted more or less time to ornithilogical 

 research, but there are none whose labors 

 and collections will compare favorably 

 Avith those of the two students referred to. 

 Perhaps the more noted of two is Capt. 

 Charles E. Bendire, of the United States 

 army, for his collection of birds' eggs is the 

 largest and most complete private collec- 

 tion in the Union, and is one for which Har- 

 vard College offered $10,000 some time ago. 

 Capt. Bendire, who is at present stationed 

 in Washington Territory, has pursued his 

 scientific hobby for many years, and has 

 been greatly aided in the gathering of his 

 remarkable collection, and by the roving- 

 nature of his profession; and by the kindly 

 aid of brother officers, many of whom 

 have added to his store whenever oppor- 

 tunity offered. The other collection on 

 the Pacific coast, that is second in impor- 

 tance only to Capt. Bendire's, is that of Mr. 

 AVilliam C. Flint, a lawyer of this city. 

 Mr. Flint's collection embraces 2.500 bird- 

 skins, between 800 and 900 nests, and not 

 less than 10,000 eggs, while it includes 

 about 600 varieties of North American 

 birds, 100 different species of nests, and 

 nearly 500 species of North American eggs, 

 in perfect clutches — a clutch, be it under- 

 stood, meaning the complete number of 

 eggs laid by the same bird for a single 

 hatching. 



ROBBIN& birds' NESTS. 



Every boy has been a nest-robber in his 



day, and every man looks back to that day 

 as among the pleasantest of his life, so 

 when a reporter met Mr. Flint yesterday 

 afternoon the idea struck him that an inter- 

 esting article might be made upon bird- 

 nesting for scientific purposes, and he 

 asked for an interview on the subject. 



" I don't care," said the reporter, '.' for a 

 lot of techical terms that nobody but a 

 naturalist will understand, but would like 

 to hear the story how you came to go 

 a-nesting so long after school days, and 

 when you had settled down to the sober 

 realities of legal practice." 



Mr. Flint went on to say that eight years 

 ago, he was an invalid, and in looking for 

 a pleasing out door recreation as a means 

 of restoring his shattered health, he sud- 

 denly remembered the happy hours passed 

 in boyhood while bird-nesting among the 

 woods and meadows, and at the same in- 

 stant decided upon his future course of ex- 

 ercise. His interest in the subject was ex- 

 cited from the start, and it has never 

 flagged for an instant since then, but has 

 grown deeper and deeper with each suc- 

 ceeding year of study. 



"No you want to know how I collect, 

 and what I do with my specimens'? Well, 

 I'll tell you. In the first place I start out 

 with the desire to find a certain class of 

 birds and eggs, and direct my journey to 

 a point where I think they ought to be 

 found. This localizing of their homes is 

 done by our own study of the characteris- 

 tics of birds, and by correspondence with 

 those those who have studied their habits 

 elsewhere. For instance, I will say that 

 Hooded Orioles are to be found in'such 

 and such exposures, as far north as Los 

 Angeles, but that a few miles north of 

 that latitude they never exist. Therefore, 

 when in search of those birds I will go 

 south of Los Angeles, and explore the 

 haunts which are suited to their habits. 



