I have on my tongue’s end the names of at least two dozen collectors of this class, those that collect merely for the number of eggs. These collectors can truly be called “Great American Egg Hogs.” Unrefined as this expression is, nevertheless it is to the point.
This class of collectors number many hundred throughout the United States and Canada. The excuse is “that egg collecting is a healthful and innocent pastime.” Healthful it is, if one collects the eggs himself (which is not the case with the majority) but as to the innocence, that is due to the fact that it is not taken under a full view, and as long as it is healthful and no serious results are immediately visible, it is taken for granted to be innocent. This is a matter which the American Ornithologist’s Union is acting upon, and appeals to the true oologists, for their assistance in discouraging these “naturalists”(?) in their wild career.—Milwaukee Naturalist.
BIRD DESTRUCTION.
BY JOS. M. WADE.
Twenty to thirty years ago, it was not an unusual sight to see even the scarlet tanager, a bright red bird with black wings and tail, flitting from tree to tree in the heart of our cities like a fiery meteor in the sun-light, and to find their nests, built very lightly of straws and similar material on the horizontal limbs of our shade trees. But they were killed or driven off long before the advent of bird millinery as a fashion. They were, indeed, a “shining mark,” and every body wanted a specimen, or thought they did, until at the present time the scarlet tanager is really a very rare bird throughout the New England States.
The Baltimore oriole, so named because the colors of the bird, black and yellow, resembled those of Lord Baltimore, has almost met the same fate, as it has done duty in ornamenting thousands of ladies’ bonnets within the past five years. Four years ago this bird was quite plenty on the elms of Boston and suburbs. The hanging nests, made of hemp, old twine, etc., were quite common. But the past season showed a great change. These birds have been shot so ruthlessly, both while here and at the South, and during the migration, that hardly a pair could be found during the breeding season of 1886.
Scientific American.
ORNITHOLOGY.
For The Hawkeye O. and O. THE WOOD THRUSH.
COMPOSED BY JAMES B. PURDY.