The editors having given me permission to ride my "hobby," I intend to
give brief but full instructions on the above as well as make a few
remarks on matters connected with a collection. There are many
collectors who can profit by what I write, but these notes are intended
mainly for the class to which I belonged about 23 years ago, _i. e._:
the young collector and the beginner. Had I had these instructions then
it would have saved me many a false step aside from doing some things
that, while not very serious mistakes, might be called "verdant."
I want, in the first place, to point out the advantages of collecting
shells. Collecting can be done all the year round in many localities;
and on the sea-shore there is no intermission. There is no climbing of
trees as in egg collecting, and no danger of broken bones. Shells are
not easily broken, are much handsomer than eggs; and, best of all, a
shell always carries its name about with it, while you must take your
correspondent's word for the egg. And tho' some oologists profess to be
able to identify a species by the egg alone, I am bound to say that
after several years of professional collecting in oology, that in the
majority of cases a species can _not_ be determined from the eggs.
The first thing a collector thinks of when a species of any kind is
obtained is the identifying or determination. The Smithsonian
Institution at Washington, D. C., or the Academy of Natural Sciences at
Philadelphia, Pa., will always determine specimens sent them for that
purpose. In sending out specimens for naming be generous. Send all that
you can spare--and perfect specimens too, as it is impossible to make a
positive determination from weathered, worn or broken specimens. Don't
ask that the specimens be returned to you, but present them to the
institutions or individuals to whom you sent them for naming. Besides
the institutions named above there are many of our prominent naturalists
who make a specialty of conchology and will name any specimens sent to
them for determination. One thing I wish to warn the beginner against is
submitting his collections to an amateur and depending on his labeling.
This was one of the "verdant" things of which I was guilty.
The beginner in land and freshwater shells will probably vote such a
pursuit as "slow" when he first commences. After making a few exchanges
and seeing the diversity of form, color, and sculpturing, he will become
interested and begin making comparisons. He is then on the right road to
knowledge, and as he adds species after species to his collection from
land, river, or lake and sea, the hobby will grow on him and it will not
be dropped when entering a business life as is the case with postage
stamps and eggs, but the collection will be kept up and give many an
hour's recreation when worried with the cares of life.
Another advantage of such a collection is that you don't offend those
æsthetic people who are horrified at the idea of collecting birds and
eggs and give us "fits" for "murdering" and "robbing" the poor birds. To
tell the truth, after years of collecting and becoming "hardened" to it
a guilty feeling sometimes comes over me when taking a set of eggs.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]