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

Edition 1st ed Published Austin : University of Texas Press, 2007

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 177 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color) Series Mildred Wyatt-Wold series in ornithology Mildred Wyatt-Wold series in ornithology. 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 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-165) and index Notes English Print version record Subject Handsaker, Ralph, 1886-1969 -- Natural history collections Handsaker, Ralph, 1886-1969 Peabody Museum of Natural History -- Natural history collections Peabody Museum of Natural History Birds -- Eggs -- Collectors and collecting Birds -- Eggs -- Catalogs and collections SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Zoology -- Ornithology. NATURE -- Birdwatching Guides. NATURE -- Animals -- Birds. NATURE / Environmental Conservation & Protection Birds -- Eggs Natural history Genre/Form Electronic books Catalogs and collections Form Electronic book LC no. 2006100251 ISBN 9780292794894 0292794894

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