74 



THE HAWKEYE ORNITHOLOGIST AND OOLOGIST. 



skin five birds an hour, and limit ourselves 

 to ten birds a day, even in the busiest sea- 

 son. Who wants a bird skinned so one 

 cannot tell from where the legs proceed, or 

 the breast from the back? Many collectors 

 say "I do not care how my specimens look," 

 and their cabinets are truthful, miserable 

 proofs of what they say. This class of so- 

 called ornithologists are the utterly shiftless 

 ones; look out for them. 



When a boy, Audubon's life was read 

 and re-read many times, and every chapter 

 and incident noted, There 1 learned that 

 his apartments were festooned with eggs on 

 strings. What more natural than a collec- 

 tion to be formed, each with two holes? 

 Now there is not a boy in the country, par- 

 ticularly readers of the O. and O., who is 

 not conversant with egg drills and blow- 

 pipes, and could, therefore, give Audubon 

 and Wilson many points on the preparation 

 of eggs. I know a man who has been to 

 Florida twice collecting and he invariably 

 blows his eggs with two holes. He is per. 

 fectly satisfied, and therefore it is i ot my 

 business to say anything; lint I have and it 

 did no good. Here is one of those cases I 

 spoke of at the beginning of this article; 

 and it is for that class that this advice is 

 iriven. I wish that the advantages result 

 ing from a paper like the (). and O., were 

 apparent when I was a boy, and many er- 

 rors and indiscretions would not have oc- 

 curred; many end hi wn eggs and scrub 

 skins would not remorsefully appeal to me, 

 and cause me to feel that had there been a 

 proper mentor in my neighborhood, many 

 precious birds would have continued their 

 sweet songs and gracefully gamboled in 

 their happy retreats. 



One more point, boys; when yon are col- 

 lecting, do not confine yourselves to birds, 

 esffs, or anv other blanch of natural histO- 

 ry. Keep your eyes open and you will see 

 many rare specimens in various depart- 



ments of the great study of nature that you' 

 never dreamed of. Examine the trees, 

 flowers and insects; it is easy to pick up a 

 few stones which are often rare, fossils and 

 shells, found by industrious research. The 

 article in the April number of the O. and. 

 O. by W. Hull was a timely warning, and 

 should be heeded. Don't be rage collect- 

 ors, boys. 



I notice with regret that the various pa- 

 pers published in the U. S., devoted, as 

 their names would imply, to birds and eggs, 

 are almost entirely rilled with topics relat- 

 ing to eggs, and very little space devoted to 

 birds. This is not the fault of the pub- 

 lishers, but demonstrates the taste of the 

 readers. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Medina, N. Y., March 24, 1888. 

 Messrs. Webster & Mead, 



Gentlemen: — In May, 1886, a Robin- 

 built a nest in a fruit tree in my garden. 

 When the nest was completed, a piece of 

 twine some two feet in length was left 

 swinging in the air. One day while the 

 Robin was setting -upon her eggs, a Cedar 

 Waxwing appeared upon the scene and be- 

 gan tugging at the twine. The Robin re- 

 mained quietly upon her nest, and, after a 

 prolonged struggle, succeeded in flying 

 away witli the twine; the whole occurrence 

 seemingly to be but barely noticed by the 

 Robin. 



I would like to ask if any readers of the 

 H. O. and O. have ever found Cowbird's 

 eggs in the nest of a Meadow Lark. In 

 the season of 1885 I found a nest of the 

 Meadow Lark containing three eggs of the 

 owner and one of the Cowbird; also a nest 

 of the Kingbird containing three eggs of 

 the owner and one of the Cowbird. 



Neil F. Posson. 



