as in meat. The eggs of the common birds have no value. One dollar will buy twenty-five or thirty 

 specimens. The country is stocked with eggs of the Robin and the like, collected by boys and others, 

 who either imagine they are advancing the science of oology, or are stimulated to robberies of this kind 

 by the insignificant rewards. This, with many other crimes against our birds, should be discouraged. 

 All interested in the welfare of the feathered race should join hands in a persistent warfare against 

 so-called cabinets of either birds or eggs, and against the savage habit of decorating hats and walls of 

 rooms with the skins of our most beautiful birds. 



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* * 



Reference is frequently made in the text under "Differential Points" to the following tables as a 

 means of easy comparison with one another of the eggs of the summer-resident birds. It is believed 

 they will also be of service for the rapid determination of the grosser characters of nests and as a key for 

 the determination of the species of the various eggs. In using them as a key, it should be remembered 

 that eggs of even the same kind may vary greatly in size, shape, ground-color, and markings, and that it is 

 possible to give only the usual dimensions, etc. Farther, the tables are not intended for the identification 

 of eggs which have reached the cabinet, — eggs that are not perfectly known should never enter a collection, 

 — but rather for the aid of the amateur oologist in his out-of-door work. Exceptional nests and eggs can 

 not of course be classified, but nearly all normal examples of eggs of the one hundred and thirty species 

 named can, by care, be traced by means of the key to their proper species. When eggs are discovered 

 which are not known and can not be identified by the key, the birds should be carefully observed, and, 

 if necessary, should be killed in order to determine their species. When by such certain means nests and 

 eggs are found within the limits of the State which are not given here, notice should be made of the 

 fact in some ornithological journal, that those interested in the oology of Ohio may receive the information. 



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