THH OOLOGIST 



23 



a bird skin when lack of time and ma- 

 terial made it impossiole to proceed in 

 the regular manner. 



H. O. Green, 

 Wakefield, Mass. 



Egg Collecting In England 



No doubt it is quite as difficult for 

 American collectors to realize the con- 

 ditions here as it is for us to realize 

 those which exist in the states. 



To begin with there is not, except 

 in the most remote parts of Ireland 

 and Scotland, any great extent of 

 really mild country. Where there is 

 any great extent of woodland it is 

 generally "preserved." This means 

 that the pheasant shooting is pre- 

 served for the owner or some 

 rich man to whom the sporting 

 rights are let, and that is patrolled by 

 game-keepers who have to be liberal- 

 ly bribed by would-be collectors. More 

 generally, however, it will be found 

 that they have no sympatliy with col- 

 lectors and peremptorily order them 

 off the woods if found and the law is 

 pretty generally on their side. 



In the southern counties of England 

 the hedgerows, which fringe the roads, 

 and which contribute so much to the 

 rural beauty of the country, are fruit- 

 ful nesting places as well as the banks 

 at the side of the roads, many of which 

 have worn out deep cuttings during 

 the hundreds of years they have been 

 in use before they came to be well 

 metalled and macadamised. 



The robin, which loves to frequent 

 the neighborhood of houses and farms 

 during winter, generally places its 

 nest in the side of a bank by the road 

 and, as the nest is made early in April, 

 before there is much vegetation to 

 hide it, it is not very difficult to find. 

 On a high bank, among ivy or tree 

 roots, we may find the Pied Wagtail's 

 nest, and the Wren's, while Thrushes 

 and Blackbirds often chose a similar 

 situation. 



Some of the hedges here are recent- 



ly planted hawthorn or holly and are 

 kept neatly trimmed while others are 

 mere strips left from original wood- 

 land and may be many yards in thick- 

 ness with great forest trees in the 

 midst of them. These bigger hedges 

 will be found to contain a very large 

 variety of nests from the warblers, 

 which will be found in the under- 

 growth, to finches in the higher lateral 

 branches and, higher still, the Red- 

 backed Shrike, Pigeon, Turtle Dove 

 and even perhaps the Jay which usual- 

 ly prefers a more secluded spot. Then 

 down among the dead leaves and dead 

 undergrowth in the bottom of the 

 hedge I have found the nest of the 

 nightingale while hollow trees at the 

 roadside will accomodate Tits and the 

 Wryneck. I forgot to mention the 

 grassy banks often fringing our coun- 

 try roads. Here may be found, on the 

 ground, the nests of the Tree and 

 Red-legged Partridge. Among the 

 younger shoots of saplings, trimmed 

 every year, one will find the Yellow 

 Hammer's nest sometimes most care- 

 fully hidden. 



An old orchard, with grass growing 

 among the trees, and the more un- 

 kempt the better, will be found always 

 a good nesting place. The holes in the 

 trees house tits and wrynecks and 

 starlings and, of course, House Spar- 

 rows, and sometimes even he Wood- 

 peckers and the Nuthatch while the 

 Tree Creeper loves too, so different 

 from yours with its glossy light blue 

 eggs quite unspotted, nests in holes 

 in old fruit trees and the Spotted Fly- 

 catcher makes its inconspicuous nest, 

 covered with moss and lichens, on a 

 rough ledge where perhaps an old 

 dead bough has been sawed off or in 

 the cleft of a wall. Chaffinches, 

 Greenfinches, Linnets, Hawfinches and 

 Goldfinches nest in the smaller 

 branches of the more bushy trees and 

 often in the tops of the most bushy 



