2 THE AUDUBON BULLE VeEys 
fact that one must possess both federal and state permits before eggs may 
be collected or even in one’s possession. These permits are issued only to 
those qualified to make use of them, and an annual report must be made to 
both branches of government. 
The work of the oologist in relation to ornithology is often overlooked. 
Most of you, however, are familiar with the ‘‘Life Histories” written by 
Mr. Bent of the Smithsonian. Mr. Bent himself was an oologist, and you 
will find that a great deal of the information in his books has been furnished 
from private egg collections throughout the country. A great deal of the 
nesting data compiled in these books has been supplied from the records of 
oologists. My interest in oology has taken me to many nests of our birds of 
prey, nests with young as well as eggs, and the food found at these nests 
provides helpful data of use in educating the public to the good done by 
these birds. On the whole, I believe the oologist is among the staunchest of 
conservationists. No one can make a study of the home life of anything 
without taking a more personal interest in its welfare. 
And so for study along these lines we set out for Churchill, Manitoba, 
on the first of last June. Churchill was established in 1686 as a trading post 
of the Hudson Bay Co., and during the next 250 years very little change 
took place in the settlement. In 1930 a railway was constructed which 
terminated at that point. This was built in order to ship grain from the 
Canadian Northwest to this point, which is only 3000 miles from Liverpool 
and the only port on the west side of Hudson Bay. Ocean liners come in 
here through Hudson Straits during July and August, the only two months 
the ice permits entrance. Churchill is located about the center of the west 
side of the bay at the mouth of Churchill River, on latitude 58, which is the 
same parallel that cuts the mainland of southern Alaska and the northern 
tip of Labrador. This point is the farthest north in the interior of North 
America that is accessible, and this section itself has been opened for only 
a short time. 
The ground work for this trip was of the utmost importance and took 
several months of planning. It was first necessary that we obtain scientific 
permits from the Canadian government, requiring some time and much 
correspondence. Then, too, we were going into a country we knew nothing 
of and were to study birds, some of which we had never seen, none of which 
we had ever seen in their breeding plumage. Published information on some 
of these species was meager or lacking, but we made an effort to take 
advantage of all the information we could find. We then enlisted the aid 
of a person in Alberta who had done more work along ornithological lines 
in this section than anyone else. He was most kind in furnishing us with 
information and small scale maps. These were of the greatest help to us, 
and with this as background we left on our trip. 
We were able to drive our car as far north as The Pas, Manitoba. This 
in itself has only been possible since 1939 as the road had not previously 
gone this far north. Our last three or four hundred miles were over gravel 
roads of not the best type. From the time we left home we camped every 
night, not having an opportunity to take a real bath while we were gone. 
During the first week we didn’t need one too much, the next two weeks 
