. The oist . by the original Smithsoniandata issued with specimens taken bythe R. R. MacFarland, AndersonRiver Arctic expedition. And many ofthem were marked with the Smithson-ian numerical accession of them had no data, and manyof them carried the data written onthe egg. Many were cracked andmany were broken, many were sodirty and covered with dust that evena white egg was as brown as thestreet, and many were as beautifullyand carefully prepared as any of thepresent day specimens. As we rolled and packed and packedand rolled with cotton and dreams anddust and hurry; we lift the li
. The oist . by the original Smithsoniandata issued with specimens taken bythe R. R. MacFarland, AndersonRiver Arctic expedition. And many ofthem were marked with the Smithson-ian numerical accession of them had no data, and manyof them carried the data written onthe egg. Many were cracked andmany were broken, many were sodirty and covered with dust that evena white egg was as brown as thestreet, and many were as beautifullyand carefully prepared as any of thepresent day specimens. As we rolled and packed and packedand rolled with cotton and dreams anddust and hurry; we lift the lid of acigar box half full of what appearsto be grayish brown colored one of them up and blowingthe dust off of it; Lo and Behold anoval white, glossy egg, more elong-ated and not as large as the tamepigeon, bearing in faded lavender inkthe mystic number of 448. Lookthis number up in the old list and seewhat we dreamed we found. A halfa cigar box full of eggs of the extinctEctopistes Migratorius!. 104 THE OOLOGI8T Delving through this lot of dirtyspecimens brought down from theattic, mixed with years of dirt, dustand cobwebs, and with dozens ofcracked, broken and whole specimensof the eggs of our commonest birds,Robin, Woodthrush, Brownthrasher,Catbird, etc., our eye was suddenly ar-rested, if you can arrest your eyes ina dream, by a grayish looking speci-men about the size of a Kingfishersegg, but with a different shell texture,and rather sharper pointed on oneend. Of course we had during all thisimaginary dream kept in mind thisvery possibility. Carefully brushingthe dust .and dirt away from off theegg, we turned the cleaner downwardside up and .there it was! Betweenthe two holes with which the egg hadbeen blown on that side, in indelibleblack ink Carolina Paroquet. The discovery was so startling thatwe promptly awoke only to find thatthe whole dream was true! That wewere actually the owner of this collec-tion of eggs made by Richard , the well known Natur
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidoist37al, booksubjectbirds
