THE OOLOGIST 



103 



pared with the same thoroughness 

 and illustrated with the same care and 

 accuracy there might be less to say 

 against some of the alleged sub-species 

 and geographic races at this time 

 when we must rely upon description 

 which read with more or less fre- 

 quency, "Similar to but different 

 from" or "Indistinguishable from or 

 intergrading with." 



Editor. 



IN RE SMALL HOLES 



To the Editor: 



As you are constantly urging us 

 to send in "copy" will you permit me, 

 at the expense doubtless, of making 

 myself unpopular to voice opposition 

 to one of the worst fads that has ever 

 cursed our beloved profession. A fad 

 that was somewhat mildly opposed by 

 my good friend Albert Ganier in the 

 last issue. I refer to the small hole 

 craze that really seems to be growing 

 among our members. 



Of course we will admit that there 

 are a careful few that can pull off such 

 a stunt and get away with it but, alas, 

 there are many who seem to thing 

 that a microscopic hole is a very or- 

 namental thing and they seem to for- 

 get that there was a time when a hole 

 in an egg was made for a spechvi and 

 useful purpose. Now Mr. Editor if 

 there is a thing that is more particu 

 larly likely to drive an ardent pro- 

 hibitionist, like the writer, to drink, it 

 is to receive a really nice set, one that 

 one wants and would like to keep, and 

 in turning it toward the light to dis- 

 cover that some misguided collector 

 in his zeal to invent a drill just a 

 little smaller than anyone else uses 

 had left a lot of dried yolk or a lot of 

 lining inside and instead of being a 

 joy forever it was a filthy, vermin in- 

 viting, pestilential thing fit only t o be 

 smashed — well if there is anything in 



a short, misspent life any worse than 

 that we can't think of it just now. 



As the lamented Artemus Ward 

 might have said "why is this thusly" 

 anyway? Surely a hole of moderate 

 size is no deformity in an egg. Many 

 years ago we obtained a pamphlet on 

 preparing specimens from the Nation- 

 al museum, edited, we believe, by 

 Major Bendire and the advice on this 

 subject was trite and impossible of 

 improvement. It was merely, "make 

 the hole sufficiently large to remove 

 all the contents." 



At that it isn't necessary to remove 

 the whole side of the egg. The writer 

 is too much overworked to do much 

 personal collecting but on one occa- 

 sion we ran across a Redtail Hawk's 

 nest with one egg. Hesitating to 

 think that one of the few Hawks to 

 be found here was that kind of a 

 slacker we left the nest for four days 

 and returned to find the same egg 

 which by this time had attained the 

 condition aptly described by our Eng- 

 lish friends as "hard sat." Just to 

 see what could be done we stirred 

 things up, got out what little we could 

 of feathers and juice, filled up the egg 

 with a strong dose of soda, (common 

 cooking salaratus) water and after 

 several days of various shakings, 

 blowings and filling had a perfectly 

 clean egg with a very neat hole. True 

 some carping critic will say that it 

 was a lot of valuable time to spend 

 on an egg that is worth approximate- 

 ly one dime but think of the triumph 

 of showing the superiority of mind 

 over mere matter and besides there 

 is no telling but what we might run 

 across some' camouflage' "Harpy 

 Eagle" or some "Passenger Pigeon" 

 still nesting in our hayloft with in- 

 cubation far advanced and then how 

 valuable the effort. 



Another suggestion made in an 

 issue a few months ago, which re- 



