THE OOLOGIST. 



139 



law, as meaning birds and not bird 

 skirts and ruled that the state officers 

 had no right to arrest a man for keep- 

 ing stuffed birds any more than they 

 could for keeping any kind of a stuffed 

 animal. 



Judging from this attack on Mr. Reed 

 it would seem that some people who 

 are looking after the interests of our 

 birds become so zealons in the pursuit 

 of violations of the game laws that 

 they overlook the fact that the posses- 

 sion of a scientific bird skin does not 

 violate any law. 



We regret the trouble the little ad 

 at the end of this article brought to 

 Mr. Reed and print the matter in full 

 as it is of great importance. 



Had there been proof that the skins 

 were taken out of season the matter 

 would then have been a case against 

 the collector and not against Mr. Reed 

 as, after scientific preparation they 

 ceased to be "game." 



And again, — many of the states 

 grant special permits for this work 

 even in the closed season— hence the 

 zealous members of our "Bird Pro- 

 tection" societies should "look twice 

 before they leap" thereby saving a lot 

 of trouble for all concerned. 



No ad of this character would be 

 printed in the Otologist were it remotely 

 suspected that any but scientific skins 

 collected in accordance with the laws 

 of the collectors state, were desired and 

 we supposed everyone in the position 

 of the complainant in this case, (we 

 understand it was the Editor of a 

 prominent New York City Sporting 

 Magazine) would so understand. 



Following is the ad' referred to: 



WANTED— Skins of Bob-white t(Am. 

 Quail). Cash or exchange. Can use several 

 dozen. Address at once. CHAS. K. REED, 

 Worcester. Mass. Taxidermist. 



Editor. 



North American Birds' Eggs. 

 Chester A. Reed. 



The Quail Trap, June 9, 1904.— As 

 the oldest working field oologist in the 

 country, it is becoming for me to say 

 a long word of praise for the latest ad- 

 dition to the literature of bird's eggs. 

 My shelves contain everything extant 



or procurable on this subject. 1 cor- 

 responded with Dr. Brewer, the closet 

 naturalist, who first published colored 

 lithographs of American eggs, and 1 

 have stacks of letters from Major Ben- 

 dire, presentation copies of whose life 

 histories are now before me. Further 

 reminders of this lamented curator are 

 also close at hand in the shape of sets 

 of American raven, painted partridge, 

 sage cock, Bendire's Thrasher, white 

 pelican and pigmy owl. It is strange 

 that most pretentious works on eggs 

 are incomplete. Both Brewer's and 

 Bendire's treatises were issued by the 

 government and both authors died 

 with their congenial tasks unfinished. 

 Brewer's American Oology is out of 

 print and becoming rare among col- 

 lectors. Bendire's Life Histories may 

 be completed by Dr. Ralph in the near 

 future. The Jones Sisters' de luxe 

 Nests and Eggs of Southern Ohio is 

 too expensive for use and the copper 

 plates are now destroyed. One of the 

 authors of the magnificent work also 

 died before the hand-coloring was 

 done. Thomas G. Gentry's pleasing 

 plates of Pennsylvania nests and eggs 

 embraced but few species and left 

 much to be desired. And so on down 

 from the "bigwig bird doctors" to the 

 lesser lights of oology. There have 

 been several editions of Davies to 

 make new additions and insert species 

 not figured at first. Nor must we for- 

 get the dead or suspended Ornitholo- 

 gist and Oologist, once printed in this 

 city, The Oologist, The Western Oolo- 

 gist, The Texas Oologist, The Maine 

 Oologist, and kindred publications. 

 Later we will include all these ephem- 

 era in a bibliography of American 

 and foreign eggs books. Maynard 

 and Ingersoll's praiseworthy attempts 

 at egg-portraiture were both unfinish- 

 ed. So we welcome the new-comer to 

 our library. Reed's North Amirican 

 Birds' Eggs may be described by the 

 four C's— crisp, compact, comprehen- 



