THE OOLOGIST. 



59 



Robins'. A lady told me that about a 

 week before she had seen a dead 

 thrush near the nest, so I judge that the 

 Robins drove away the remaining bird. 

 This is the first incident of the kind I 

 ever witnessed. Is it a common or 

 rare occurrence in bird life? 



DAVID HARROWER, 

 Swarthmore, Pa. 



No ! This is not common by any 

 means. Such notes are always of inter- 

 est and solicited from all. Ed. 



The Editor of the Oologist : 



The excellent suggestion of Mr. 

 Price, resulting in the appointment of 

 a committee to whom questionable 

 transactions in the egg line may be 

 submitted, is one which will certainly 

 meet with a cordial endorsement from 

 all who have been through the mill. 

 That the investigations of the gentle- 

 men who have kindly consented to act 

 in the matter will be accepted and duly 

 appreciated goes without saying. 



My collection is still a modest one 

 but 1 find in my note book that my 

 first oological specimens were taken 

 "June 20, 1884"; I have them yet, 

 highly prized and respected, and I 

 would hardly part with that old set of 

 Catbird's for dozens of "rare and curi- 

 ous" eggs that have reached me in the 

 past twenty years. They run all the 

 way from a couple of sets of Lapwing's 

 taken in Dakota some fifteen years 

 ago, to a set of Rock Wren, recently 

 received. The specifications accom- 

 panying the latter set call for six eggs, 

 but the Wren through an oversight, no 

 doubt, only supplied five, the other 

 being added by a friendly Vireo to com- 

 plete the set ; all of which goes to show 

 that the cowbird is not the only biped 

 occasionally droppng an egg among 

 strange bedfellows. But after all, it 

 is not the rank, blundering imposter, 

 making up impossible data or freak 

 substitutions that drives collectors 

 "out of the business" as Mr. Price 



says ; how much oftener do we receive 

 a set with marks obscured or renewed, 

 details on data erased or altered, or 

 that just has a "queer" look, we can- 

 not return it and risk an unjust accusa- 

 tion, and so it remains, an object of 

 suspicion and distrust among its honor- 

 able neighbors, until, like an evil weed, 

 it is thrown out and destroyed. Fort- 

 unately the egg shark is not easily con- 

 tent ; becoming bolder with apparent 

 success, his greed is seldom satisfied 

 'until, over reaching himself, detection 

 and exposure finally follow. 



In his connection I would like to sug- 

 gest that, as a matter of precaution and 

 self protection, collectors of rare and 

 valuable eggs, particularly of the larg- 

 er kinds, such as cranes, eagles, falcons, 

 etc., might do well to note on the data 

 blank in their own handwriting, some 

 natural distinguishing feature of the 

 eggs themselves, such as their size or 

 peculiarity of shape and marking ; those 

 are set marks that cannot be altered. 

 I recently received a handsome set of 

 Broad- winged Hawk's eggs upon which 

 the set marks, originally in pencil, had 

 become so blurred as to be absolutely 

 illegible ; the collector, however, had 

 carefully noted on his data accurate 

 measurements of each egg, which I 

 readily verified, and I valued these 

 figures a good deal more than the com- 

 mon place "Remarks" that the eggs 

 were taken "From an old crow's nest, " 

 40 feet from the ground." This col- 

 lector protected himself, for the eggs 

 had passed through many hands and if 

 any substitution had been attempted 

 clearly he was not responsible for it. 



One more example may not be amiss. 

 Of two sets of Wren-Tit, one was fresh 

 when taken, in the other incubation 

 was advanced;" in the latter set three 

 eggs have large holes, while the fourth 

 egg was blown through a "pinhole"; 

 no harm in that, to be sure, but if I 

 ever send that set out in exchange to 

 some suspicious stranger he may be 



