THE OOLOGIST 



two, or three at a pinch. The trusty 

 fish basket was on the ground, and 

 time and cold made me act quickly. 

 Egg number one was taken from the 

 can and deposited in the left hand 

 pocket of my coat, while one of the 

 three was wrapped in my only pocket 

 handkerchief and placed in the top of 

 my fedora hat. The other two went 

 into the coffee can in my right hand 

 coat pocket, and then I started down. 

 Now I came to the part of the story 

 that the title suggests. In working 

 ing down below one of the big dead 

 stumps, it was necessary to catch 

 the strap afer being swung by my 

 right hand, by left knee and clamp it 

 to the tree trunk until I could reach 

 over and hook it to my belt with the 

 right hand. 



After several unsuccessful attempts 

 the strap at last came round, but alas 

 too far, for the heavy snap hook on 

 the end landed squarely on the cen- 

 ter of my left hand pocket. A loud 

 report, a mild stench to the nostrils, 

 and I knew my claim to a four egg 

 set of Bald Eagles had vanished. 



It was harder going down that 

 sleet-covered tree trunk than mere 

 words could convey to my readers, 

 and after the row back to the start- 

 ing place, I was more than ready to 

 dry myself at the friendly stove in 

 the country store, near the dock, while 

 waiting for the downsteamer. 



And this is the sad tale of how I 

 lost a set of four Bald Eagles, the 

 only one that I have ever taken. 



Harold H. Bailey, 

 Newport News, Va. 



The Eggs of the Finch Family 

 Many years ago, and 1 have been 

 collecting since I could toddle, I start- 

 ed collecting the eggs of the passer- 

 ine birds of the whole world. I was 

 continually put to it to find more and 

 more space and finally got rid of 



pretty nearly all I had and then con- 

 ceived the idea of collecting the eggs 

 only of the Buntings (Emberizinae). 

 Dr. Sharpe had divided the Finch 

 family, it will be remembered, into 

 three main groups, the Grosbeaks, 

 True Finches and the Buntings. 

 Later, influenced chiefly by the argu- 

 ments of Mr. Ridgway, he abandoned 

 this grouping but even before he had 

 done this I found it was very difficult 

 to say where the Finches ended and 

 the Buntings began. So I decided to 

 collect the eggs of the whole of the 

 Finch family. 



According to Dr. Sharpe's Hand 

 List the Finch family comprises 139 

 genera and 1187 species so that the 

 scope for a collector is sufficiently 

 large. It is also sufficiently vast as 

 regards the geographical distribution 

 of the Finches for they are to be 

 found in all parts of the world except 

 Australia. 



My idea was to have at least one 

 set of each sort that could be ob- 

 tained and to have sets showing out- 

 standing variations where possible. 

 I have whole drawers of some of our 

 British species and it is so difficult 

 to reduce these, for every set has 

 merit. 



I have had some lucky scoops. I 

 was able to buy up large series of 

 some of the Japanese Buntings when 

 Mr. Owston's collections were dis- 

 posed of and have some very fine 

 types of these including the rare E. 

 yessoensis. 



I find very great difficulty in secur- 

 ing the American Finches' eggs, es- 

 pecially those outside the so-called 

 Sparrows, and this though I am pre- 

 pared to offer valuable material in ex- 

 change. Nearly every American col- 

 lector offers one the same sorts of 

 eggs and the rarer ones seem un- 

 obtainable. Then, again, it is very 

 difficult to secure what we call va- 



