38 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Devoted to Birds and Birds' Eggs 



THIRD PUBLICATION YEAR. 



S. L. WILLAED, EDITOR, 



Assisted Iby able Associate Editors. 



TERMS: 

 Forty cents a Tear in advance, postage paid. 



Items on Ornitliology and Oology solicited. 



^^^Tliose wishing to dispose of birds' eggs 

 or skins will find The Oologist the best 

 means of commnnicating the fact to a large 

 class of collectors of anj' paper published. 

 Specimen copy for stamp. 



Address all communications to 



THE OOLOGIST, 

 Oneida Street, Utica, X. Y. 



JULY, 1877. 



THE INTRINSIC VALUE 

 BIRDS' EGGS. 



OF 



fTlpIE true way of determining the real val- 

 ue of a bird's egg is according to its ge- 

 ograpical scarcity or abundance. While 

 some varieties are of little worth because 

 of the great quantities that may be collect- 

 ed in some localities, others are valuable 

 on account of their comparative scarcity in 

 all localities, notwithstanding that the ac- 

 cepted current value often set upon them 

 is inequable and disproportionable. For 

 example, the current worth of the eggs of 



many inland birds, called common, Avhicli 

 are distributed over the range of the coun- 

 try, and do not breed in any one locality 

 more abundantly, relatively speaking, than 

 in another, and in no one place in multi- 

 tudes, is merely trivial in comparison to 

 that of the eggs of many sea birds, of which 

 some, even of the rarer species, are much 

 more common than many of our abundant 

 inland birds. The intrinsic worth of the 

 e^g of the Florida Heron is not more than 

 half that of the Gg^ of the Hairy Wood- 

 pecker ; there are, strictly speaking, from 

 perhaps fifty to a hundred or more of the 

 former to every one of the latter, and their 

 nesting places usually cover acres of ground. 

 Relatively, the egg of the Turkey Buzzard 

 is worth about one-third that of the Yel- 

 low-bellied Flycatcher ; and were the val- 

 ues of the eggs of tlie Swan and Fox-col- 

 ored Sparrow compared, those of the latter 

 would be found worth the more. It will 

 be seen that these comparisons are made 

 entirely independent of the accepted nomi- 

 nal value ; they do not refer us to the dif- 

 ficulty experienced in obtaining them, nor 

 to their representation in cabinets, but to 

 their worth as to actual abundance or scar- 

 city. In some cases it would be imprac- 

 ticable, as in the instance of many other 

 similar articles, to determine the market 

 value of an egg in exact, or even approxi- 

 mate correspondence with its real value as 

 a specimen. It has been customary when 

 it is found that a number of rare eggs may 

 be obtained under favorable circumstances, 

 to offer them much below their intrinsic 

 worth in order that cabinets may be sup- 

 plied, and that those who require them for 

 study can procure them at a reasonable 

 price ; nevertheless their actual value has 

 not diminished in the least, and they are 

 equally as desirable as if offered at their 

 real value. The same may be said in re- 

 gard to bird-skins, though allowance, of 

 course, is to be made for the fact of the less 

 difficulty in obtaining most of them : many 

 birds whose eggs are almost unknown 

 to science, are among the commonest in 

 collections. 



