Oology and Ralph's talking eggs : bird conservation comes out of its shell / Carrol L. Henderson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Henderson, Carrol L.

Series:

Mildred Wyatt-Wold series in ornithology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Handsaker, Ralph, 1886-1969--Natural history collections.

Handsaker, Ralph.

Handsaker, Ralph, 1886-1969.

Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Birds--Eggs--Collectors and collecting.

Birds.

Birds--Eggs--Catalogs and collections.

Peabody Museum of Natural History--Natural history collections.

Natural history--Catalogs and collections.

Birds--Eggs.

Collectors and collecting.

Genre:

Catalogs and collections.

Physical Description:

xiii, 177 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2007.

Summary:

Before modern binoculars and cameras made it possible to observe birds closely in the wild, many people collected eggs as a way of learning about birds. Serious collectors called their avocation "oology" and kept meticulous records for each set of eggs: the bird's name, the species reference number, the quantity of eggs in the clutch, the date and location where the eggs were collected, and the collector's name. These documented egg collections, which typically date from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, now provide an important baseline from which to measure changes in the numbers, distribution, and nesting patterns of many species of birds.

In Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs, Carrol L. Henderson uses the vast egg collection of Ralph Handsaker, an Iowa farmer, as the starting point for a fascinating account of oology and its role in the origins of modern birdwatching, scientific ornithology, and bird conservation in North America. Henderson describes Handsaker's and other oologists' collecting activities, which included not only gathering bird eggs in the wild but also trading and purchasing eggs from collectors around the world. Henderson then spotlights sixty of the nearly five hundred bird species represented in the Handsaker collection, using them to tell the story of how birds such as the Snowy Egret, Greater Prairie Chicken, Atlantic Puffin, and Wood Duck have fared over the past hundred years or so since their eggs were gathered. Photos of the eggs and historical drawings and photos of the birds illustrate each species account. Henderson also links these bird histories to major milestones in bird conservation and bird protection laws in North America from 1875 to the present. While wild bird conservation has come a long way in the last hundred years, this book is a call to action for conservationists because some modern-day threats to bird life are far more insidious than threats posed to birds a century ago by market hunting and the plume trade. Modern birders who travel the world to observe birds for their life lists will recognize a kindred spirit in Ralph Handsaker, whose 4,000-plus egg collection spans forty-four U.S. states as well as England, Scotland, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Russia, the Bering Sea, New Zealand, South Georgia Island, Canada, and Iceland. Far from being silent specimens in a collector's cabinet, however, Ralph's talking eggs tell a captivating, previously unknown story of how birding and bird conservation in North America began with the interest and dedication of "citizen scientist" oologists.

Contents:

1 The House of the Talking Eggs 1

2 The Heyday of Oology: 1880-1918 9

3 In the Beginning 25

4 Early Exits from the Land: These Birds Were among the First to Go 35

5 Wild Bird Eggs 47

6 The Handsaker Egg Collection: Ralph's Talking Eggs 57

7 One Hundred Years Later 143

8 Scientific Value of Eggs and Egg Collections 149

Species Identification for Eggs in Photos 156.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-165) and index.

ISBN:

9780292714519

0292714513

OCLC:

76939940