68 



THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



Wlien the desired locality has been reached 

 I often start to the field of pleasant labor 

 by daybreak and rarely get back to my 

 own nest until after nightfall. My rig con- 

 sists of an e-Any shooting suit, a capital No. 

 12 gun, a belt full of cartridges, loaded 

 with varjing amounts of powder and with 

 seven or eight different sizes of shot, a fish 

 basket for the birds, a game bag for nests, 

 a tin box, twelve inches by six, and divid- 

 ed by pasteboard into small compartments 

 for single eggs, and, if there is timberwork 

 to be done, a pair of climbing irons. The 

 top and bottom of the egg box is lined 

 with felt to prevent breakage, and the 

 nests are tied around with thread to keep 

 theni in shape. On returning to head- 

 quarters I skin my birds, after a careful 

 study and noting of their external pecu- 

 liarities, and then make a thorough study 

 of their anatomical structure, preserving 

 the skeleton of new or rare specimens or 

 of any that show diiferences of build from 

 others of their kind. The skins, of course, 

 are doctored with arsenic and laid away. 

 By drilling a tiny hole in their sides I 

 empty the eggs of their contents with the 

 aid of a small blow-pipe, except in the case 

 of their holding embryos, when I destroy 

 the shell and preserve the embryo in 

 spirits. 



WHEN A NEST HAS BEEN FOUND 



I never take it until the full complement 

 of eggs has been laid, visiting it day after 

 day until this fact is accomplished. Then 

 I shoot both of the piirent birds, sometimes 

 waiting two or three days before I can 

 secure them both. By this means I get 

 the entire family, and by my constant 

 Avatching during the days past have learned 

 every feature of the breeding process of 

 this species. By the way, there is a speci- 

 men here that I brought down yesterday 

 to show a gentleman. In this case I failed 

 to get the male bird, as I was only out for 

 a days run from the city, and as the species 

 was not rai"e enough to compensate me for 

 a lengthy delay. Ah ! here's the box. 

 This is the skin, you see, and in an excel- 

 lent state of preservation. You'll notice 

 how this arrangement of almost invisible 



thread has kept the nest in shape, and now. 

 in each of these four rolls of raw cot ion 

 we'll find a dainty little egg— pretty, aren't 

 thej^? On this slip of paper you'll find 

 how I mark my collection. 1 w-ill explain 

 the figures as you read along._ ' No. 170 

 A. ' That is the number of the species in 

 the 'ornithological catalogue. ' Name — 

 Crimson House Finch. Collected by Wil- 

 liam C. Flint. Locality, Alameda County. 

 Date, April 37, 1879. Set S 0—4.' That 

 means there are four eggs, on each of 

 which I have marked with a lead pencil 

 the letters S O. I have different letters for 

 the eggs of each clutch, so that the\^ can- 

 not by accident be confused with others. 

 The slip continues, ' Identity female ; 

 flushed ' — shot when flushed from her 

 nest, that is. ' Incubation, progressed. 

 Nest composed exclusively of dry grasses 

 (preserved with set). Situated on a small 

 horizontal limb of a live oak tree — three 

 ;md a half feet from trunk, seventeen feet 

 from ground, on the south side of a wood- 

 ed hill.' From that sliij, you see, a l)rother 

 student may learn a good manj' particulars 

 about that bird, with her nest and eggs, 

 while to me it recalls every circumstance 

 of their finding. That lot is 



KEPT FOR EXCHANGE, 



but you can have them, if you will ; and I 

 wdll say, at this point, that eastern people 

 are very eager to exchange Avith us out 

 here, as there are not only many birds that 

 are peculiar to this coast, but also as the 

 nests here, owing to our climate, are more 

 fragile in build and contain less material 

 than the nests of eastern birds of the same 

 species, while in almost every instance 

 Pacific coast eggs of the same species are 

 lighter in color than the eastern ones, and 

 some varieties of biixis lay fewer eggs here 

 than in the east. In some cases this last 

 fact holds good also between the southern 

 and northern portions of this State, as 

 there are birds, for instance, that lay only 

 three eggs in the neighborhood of San 

 Diego, while the same birds always lay 

 four eggs in the latitude of San Francisco. 

 "Don't let me get to describing differ- 

 ences, etc., or you will fiud yourself lost 



