have been raised, and prices east and west equitably 

 adjusted. Some of our western species, as Red-bellied 

 Hawk, while much in demand for their beauty in 

 coloration, are taken in but few favored localities, 

 where the collectors prefer to keep them for series, 

 while their range is either limited or extended through 

 country where there are few collectors. The writer 

 finds 339b rare in Northern California — but one set is 

 his total take in twenty years. It will be a long time 

 before the market is glutted (!) with such sets and 

 they deserve a good rating. * 



A number of collectors who take sets of Blue-winged 

 Warbler thought the figure should remain $2, while 

 numerous others demanded a reduction. A well- 

 known Connecticut collector who has about half a 

 hundred sets in his series said, "put it $1.50." With 

 this we strike a medium. A number urged the ad- 

 vance made on Bald Eagle, and there was but one 

 correspondent to suggest a reduction on Golden Eagle 

 He named an exchange price of $8, instead of $10. 

 Others asked for an increase Mr. Jacobs and others, 

 wrote, "No one ever thinks of exchanging them for 

 $10." There he's wrong, I will myself, and the rate 

 remains unchanged. Considering the steady Euro- 

 pean demand, variation in marking, etc. (which applies 

 likewise to 339 and 337), the price is none too high. 



The writer "owns up" that the contention of many 

 eastern men that some of our western forms have 

 been rated disproportionately high is correct, and be- 

 lieves he has remedied this condition, but at the same 

 time a very erroneous opinion prevails in the minds 

 of some as to the ease with which rare Warblers' sets, 

 etc., may be picked up in the West. I would like to 

 take some of these doubters through the high Sierra, 

 where five or six sets all told for a week's work (as on 

 the Placerville-Tahoe road) is a fair average, including 

 Mountain Bluebirds and Western Robins! 



In the great valleys and foothills of California, it is 

 true, there are spots where bird life is prolific, but 

 they are chiefly of what are called the commoner 

 birds. Sets of Hermit Warbler and Western Evening 

 Grosbeak from the Sierra sold for $25 and $40 each 

 cash. Who has taken them since? And who shall 

 say they brought extravagant sums, considering the 

 trip necessary. California is a big State, and speaking 

 for the west, rich as it is in oological treasures, you 

 cannot always walk out in the back yard and pick up 

 rare sets. By the way, a correspondent (who prob- 

 ably wants a small series) suggested $4 to me as a 

 fair value on Hermit Warbler's eggs. 



Prices are omitted on some species so rare as to 

 make an exchange valuation almost impossible, as in 

 the case of certain waders. At a recent sale in Lon- 

 don sets of four eggs each of Pectoral and Bonaparte's 

 Sandpipers brought over $40 a set. Four eggs "of 

 Grey Plover, taken in Alaska," brought $40. Eggs 

 of the Great Auk are occasionally sold at from $1,000 

 to $1,600. 



Thirty guineas, or $150, was paid at Steven's auction 

 rooms Co vent Garden, in July last, for a fine specimen 

 of the egg of JEpyorms maximus, "12 inches in diam- 

 eter." 



Who says eggs of the Great Skua are priced too 

 high ? This is from the Yorkshire Post : 



