Massachusetts. Another tells how a mocking-bird appeared in southern
New England and was hunted down by himself and friend, its eggs
"clutched," and the bird killed. Who knows how much the bird lovers of
New England lost by that foul deed? The progeny of the birds would
probably have returned to Connecticut to breed, and their progeny,
or a part of them, the same, till in time the famous songster would
have become a regular visitant to New England. In the same journal
still another collector describes minutely how he outwitted three
humming birds and captured their nests and eggs,--a clutch he was very
proud of. A Massachusetts bird harrier boasts of his clutch of the
egg's of that dainty little warbler, the blue yellow-back. One season
he took two sets, the next five sets, the next four sets, besides some
single eggs, and the next season four sets, and says he might have
found more had he had more time. One season he took, in about twenty
days, three from one tree. I have heard of a collector who boasted of
having taken one hundred sets of the eggs of the marsh wren, in a
single day; of another, who took in the same time, thirty nests of the
yellow-breasted chat; and of still another, who claimed to have taken
one thousand sets of eggs of different birds in one season. A large
business has grown up under the influence of this collecting craze.
One dealer in eggs has those of over five hundred species. He says
that his business in 1883 was twice that of 1882; in 1884 it was twice
that of 1883, and so on. Collectors vie with each other in the extent
and variety of their cabinets. They not only obtain eggs in sets,
but aim to have a number of sets of the same bird so as to show all
possible variations. I hear of a private collection that contains
twelve sets of kingbirds' eggs, eight sets of house-wrens' eggs,
four sets mocking-birds' eggs, etc.; sets of eggs taken in low trees,
high trees, medium trees; spotted sets, dark sets, plain sets, and
light sets of the same species of bird. Many collections are made on