EGG COLLECTING. 
FRED MAY, 
School Taxidermist. 
To the Editor of Birds and All Nature: 
I AM glad the magazine of birds is 
furnishing its readers so many 
points about the good qualities of 
our birds. And as they are being 
protected more every year by the state 
laws and by the lovers of birds, I think 
they are sure to increase. I have often 
been asked about the decrease in bird 
life. The blame is generally put on 
the taxidermist, collector, sportsman, 
and schoolboy, which I claim is all 
wrong. The taxidermist collector of 
to-day is a lover of bird-life, and only 
hunts specimens to mount for a scien- 
tific purpose. This gives our school 
children a better chance to study them. 
The schoolboy and girl of to-day are 
doing great good in the protection of 
bird-life, and your book of birds has a 
warm friend among them. The true 
sportsman always lives up to the laws 
and takes a fair chance with dog and 
gun. The plume and bird collector 
will soon be a thing of the past, as hats 
trimmed with choice ribbons and jets are 
fast taking the place of those covered 
with feathers and birds. Now the per- 
sons who hide behind all these, and 
who destroy more bird-life in a single 
season than all the hunters and collec- 
tors of skins, are never brought to the 
eyes of the press. These are the peo- 
ple who have a fad for egg-collecting. 
They not only rob the nest of its one 
setting, but will take the eggs as long 
as the bird will continue to lay, and, not 
satisfied with that, will take the eggs 
from every bird as long as they can find 
them. They will even take the eggs 
after incubation has begun, and often- 
times, after a hard climb for the eggs, 
will destroy the nest. There are thou- 
sands upon thousands of settings of 
eggs of every kind taken every year by 
these fad egg collectors and you will 
see in some of our magazines on orni- 
thology offers of from fifty to five hun- 
dred settings for sale. Now, what is an 
egg to tn » s egg collector? Nothing. 
But to the lover of birds there is a 
great deal in that shell. There is a 
life; the song of the woods and of the 
home. In that shell is the true and 
faithful worker who has saved our 
farmers and our city homes and parks 
from the plagues of insects that would 
have destroyed crops and the beauty of 
our homes. Shall the law allow these 
nest-robbers to go on summer after 
summer taking hundreds of thousands 
of settings? If it shall I am afraid the 
increase in our bird-life will be slow. 
With the help of our game wardens 
and sporting-clubs a great deal of this 
could be stopped, and a great saving 
could be made in game birds' eggs. 
Our country school children can pro- 
tect our song birds' nests by driving 
these collectors, with their climbing 
irons and collecting cans, from their 
farms in the breeding-season. Yes, it 
often looks sad to see a song bird drop 
at the report of the gun of the skin col- 
lector. But when we think of the bird- 
egg collector sneaking like a thief in the 
night up a tree or through a hedge, 
taking a setting of eggs on every side 
while the frightened mother sits high 
in the tree above, and then down and 
off in search of more, only to come 
back in a short time to take her eggs 
again — what is bird-life to him? What 
would he care to be sitting in the shade 
by the lake or stream listening to the 
song of the robin, or after a hard day's 
work in the hot summer, be seated on 
his porch to hear the evening song of 
the warbler and the distant call of the 
whippoorwill? Let the lovers of bird- 
life commence with the spring song, 
with the building of the nest, and save 
each little life they can from the egg 
collector. Will this man, if he may be 
called a man, look into his long draw- 
ers filled with eggs, and his extra set- 
tings for sale and trade? Let him 
think of the life he has taken, the 
homes he has made unhappy. I should 
think he would go like Macbeth from 
his sleep to wash the blood from his 
hands. 
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