THE OOLOGIST 



107 



anything for the Osprey business! 

 Yes, that everlasting word "business," 

 used as it is to cover the multitude of 

 things of this world, good, bad and in- 

 different, from going to see your best 

 girl of a Sunday evening, to building 

 a railroad or running a horse race; it 

 is all business for some. Business is 

 the poor excuse I plead for neglecting 

 my hobby, and you my younger 

 friends, one and all will find it easier 

 as years go by, and business cares in- 

 crease, to refrain from going out into 

 the crisp air of early March to look at 

 the Bubo's nest out of which you took 

 the eggs last season, and you will stay 

 at home with less restlessness of a hot 

 June day, even though you may know 

 the swamp over yonder is full of rare 

 warblers' eggs, simply awaiting some 

 one to take them. Yes, you will do 

 all this and more with the best grace 

 possible if you have a counting room, 

 store or office full of people who de- 

 sire to see you "on business" and more 

 especially will this be so if the al- 

 mighty dollar is in sight and the near- 

 er this is, the less will you be inclined 

 to go egging. Maybe then you will do 

 as I do, watch anxiously for the com- 

 ing of the Osprey and devour with 

 eagerness every page and line, adver- 

 tisements and all. Learn to regard it 

 as I do, as an old friend. And perhaps 

 you will then feel like catching up a 

 pen and trying to see how some of 

 your own experiences will look in cold 

 type; but I digress, wander, and would 

 be surely lost, were it not for the fact 

 that I had written down the heading 

 for this creed before going any further. 

 And it now stares me in the f&xe to 

 remind me that I intended to tell you 

 something of "some queer thingb" and 

 not evolve a thesis on "business." You 

 will remember it has been quite the 

 fad in the past for those possessing 

 large collections to publish lists of 

 them. A very good thing by the way 



as it shows who our really great col- 

 lectors are, and also seems to en- 

 lighten us upon what are really the 

 rare eggs, far more than any dealer's 

 price list can do, and also by a com- 

 parison of a number of such publica- 

 tions one can gain an accurate knowl- 

 edge of the number of eggs composing 

 a normal set of any particular species. 



Now my private collection is not 

 large enough to make much of a show 

 in this sort of a parade, so I propose 

 to say something of some of the 

 "queer things" that have come into 

 my possession during the formation of 

 my small collection. 



LARGE SETS 



First of large sets I have 766 Blue- 

 bird 1-6 taken by myself years ago 

 out of an apple tree some eight feet 

 up. This is the only set of six that 

 ever came under my observation in 

 cur twenty years collecting, though I 

 understand them to be quite common 

 in some parts of the country. 



593 1-5 Cardinal. Usually this bird 

 lays but three and I regard this as a 

 very large number to be taken in one 

 set. 



511b 1-6 Bronze Grackle. This is the 

 only set of six ever taken out of about 

 100 sets. 



501 1-6, Meadowlark. The only set 

 of 6 I ever took or saw. 



507 1-6, Orchard Oriole. The only 

 set of 6 I ever took. 



488 3-6 1-7. . Crows are very abund- 

 ant out in the river bottoms here and 

 as many as twenty nests have been 

 taken in a single day by me, yet the 

 above are the only sets containing 

 over four eggs. 



402 1-8, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. 

 This is a most unusual set as to the 

 number of eggs. I took it from an old 

 willow snag about 20 feet up and all 

 of the eggs were perfectly fresh. 



144 1-17, Wood Duck. This is the 

 largest set of Wood Ducks' eggs that 



