39 



THE OOLOGIST 



got a nice set of eggs, which lie packed 

 in the box with the greatest care. 

 Then, instead of coming down imme- 

 diately with them, Murphy thought he 

 would like to show how much at home 

 he felt in the swaying tree top, so he 

 lighted a cigarette and began leisurely 

 surveying the surrounding country. A 

 minute later Mr. Coombs saw a swiftly 

 dropping objects, which narrowly 

 missed hitting his head as it passed 

 and struck the ground at his feet. 

 Stooping over he picked up his col- 

 lecting box, which contained four 

 slightly incubated eggs, most thor- 

 oughly smashed to pieces. Although 

 this was the only nest of Cooper's 

 Hawk which he had found during the 

 season, Mr. Coombs always takes such 

 mishaps good-naturedly, and he merely 

 remarked to the rather crestfallen 

 hero that he would save the pieces 

 and exhibit them in his collection as 

 a sample of Murphy's work as a nat- 

 uralist. It was lucky for the Irish- 

 man's peace of mind that he was not 

 collecting for me, however. 

 Wakefield, Mass. Horace O. Green, 



y 



J. W. PRESTON. 



Our mail brings the following com- 

 munication from Mrs. Preston, giving 

 '1/ an account of the death of her hus- 

 band: 



'T am writing you to tell you of Mr. 

 Preston's death, which occurred Janu- 

 ary 10th. As you perhaps know, his 

 health failed more than a year ago. 

 He was afflicted with typhoid fever 

 in September, as were three of our 

 children (due to bad water). Mr. 

 Preston never recovered from this 

 and a week before his death developed 

 pneumonia. His last week was hard. 

 The end came peacefully and without 

 a struggle. His calm, peaceful face 

 showed that for him "life's battles 

 were over," and the care and pain 

 gone. 



"But for me and his four dear little 

 children the loneliness and heartache 

 are only begun. 



"I am taking the liberty to ask your 

 advice as to the disposal of his collec- 

 tion. I would like to keep it, but it 

 was his wish and intention to dispose 

 of at least a part of it. 



"You probably know of his financial 

 reverses. We have not purchased a 

 home since coming to Cheney. It was 

 cur plan to apply the money from the 

 collection in this way. 



"Cheney is a good school town, and 

 we will probably carry out his plans. 



"Thanking you in advance for any 

 suggestions you may offer, 



Mrs. Mabel S. Preston." 



Mr. Preston was one of the real well 

 known collectors' of birds' eggs in the 

 United States. He amassed one of 

 the finest private collections that it 

 has ever been our privilege to ex- 

 amine, most of which now rests in the 

 cabinet of The Editor. He was a 

 tireless field ornithologist and one un- 

 usually well read in the books. His 

 experience was wide and varied in 

 different parts of the country, begin- 

 ning in Northern Iowa at a time when 

 the Wild Pigeon, Trumpeter Swan and 

 Whooping Crane nested in that terri- 

 tory. 



One of the eggs of the latter bird 

 taken by Mr. Preston in our collection 

 was accompanied by data showing 

 that he had traveled in the neighbor- 

 hood of twenty miles on foot, found 

 this nest just at dusk, took the egg 

 after flushing the bird at very short 

 range, carried it with him clear home, 

 and on the way stumbled over a stump 

 in the dark and damaged it. This in- 

 cident is referred to simply to show 

 the tireless energy of the young man. 



In his earlier life he had the as- 

 sistance of his father and other rela- 

 tives, who were much interested in 

 collecting eggs. Many of the speci- 



