52 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Devoted to Birds and Birds' Eggs 



SECOND PUBLICATION YEAR. 



S. L. WiLLARD &, Co., 



Editors. I 



SUBSCRIPTION 



40 cents a year, in advance, postage prepaid. 



Authors. — Sketches pertaining to our 

 branch of natural history may be sent ns with 

 prices marked thereon. We will give them a 

 careful perusal, and if satisfactory, will ac- 

 cept them. None but original and authentic 

 sketches noticed. 



Egg-dealers and Collectors. — Persons 

 Avishing to dispose of eggs, cabinets, skins, 

 etc., will find The Oologist the best means 

 of communicating the fact to collectors of any 

 paper published. 



Specimen copy for stamp. 



Address all communications to 



THE OOLOGIST, Utica, N. Y. 



SEPTEMBER, 1876. 



THE OBJECT OF COLLECTING. 



TC^VERY collector, doubtless, has some 

 -■— ' special object for collecting specimens 

 of natural history. It is a work for which 

 some specific end is in view^ but Avhether 

 for science, ornament, or other purposes, is 

 the collector's own idea. It too frequently 

 occurs in the case of birds or eggs being the 

 subject, that collecting is carried on simply 



for the sport it yields, and this is what every 

 collector should improve upon. A collect- 

 or and a naturalist are not always identical, 

 the signification of eaith term, if used alone, 

 being wide in difference. In common, a 

 collector is understood to be a naturalist as 

 well as a gatherer, and one deeply interest- 

 ed in the prosecution of his researches. 



Ornithology and oijlogy are probably as 

 interesting and well considered studies as 

 any other branch of natural science, and 

 the true collector endeavors to obtain as 

 much knowledge from his collections and 

 the circumstances surrounding them, as he 

 can, thus constantly enlarging upon his own 

 information as well as that of tl)c world. 

 The ardent collector and naturalist, looks 

 upon his fellow collectors who gather spec- 

 imens for the one object of having a collec- 

 tion, or excitement of finding a bird's nest 

 or shooting a bird, only to let them go to 

 destruction, as not worthy of being allowed 

 to possess a collection. Many collectors 

 seem to be impressed with a wrong idea of 

 what specimens are obtained for, and enter 

 into the field because some of their friends, 

 perhaps, have a collection of eggs or skins, 

 and they think that the same subject might, 

 too, have some excitement for them. The 

 prevailing result is, that after a- few speci- 

 mens have been procured and got together, 

 the enterprise is dropped, and all interest 

 has fled. These are neither true natural- 

 ists nor collectors. 



A well arranged, labelled and reliable 

 collection of eggs, is something of great in- 

 terest and value, and more regard is felt in 

 a few specimens procured entirely by the 

 student and owner, than in a whole case of 

 eggs collected by unknown or remote per- 

 sons. This is the case when one is natural- 

 ly attracted to the science, and regards it, 

 in the terms of some persons, as his "■hob- 

 by." Here, thus, exists an object — a con- 

 cern for one's own enlightenment on the 

 subject, and in each specimen collected, the 

 finder has not only added so much more to 

 his cabinet, but to his knowledge. As a 

 science, oology requires to be studied the 

 same as other natural knowledge, and the 



