I grew up in the Murray Mallee districts of South Australia and bird egg
collecting was all the rage amongst the young boys of the area. Many
boasted quite considerable collections; swaps were a common practice.
I often viewed the collections of my cousins and friends with envy. That
was because I did not have a collecton of my own. The reasons were simple:
(1) I was terrible at climbing trees (even now I hesitate to scale a tree
in order to check the contents of a nest)
(2) I hated the thought of plunging my hand into a dark hollow - what might
lurk in the depths???
(3) I couldn't possibly think of blowing out the contents of an egg - how
repulsive!
I opted for a far more genteel hobby - and far more ecologically correct in
retrospect. I collected birds' feathers that I found lying around on the
ground. I sticky taped them into a spare exercise book. Parrots' feathers
were my most prized finds.
Trevor Hampel
Murray Bridge
----------
> From: Ian Clayton <>
> To: Birding Aus <>
> Subject: Egg Collecting?
> Date: Tuesday, 31 March 1998 3:11
>
> How many of you Too and Froms (Poms) like myself started
> birding as a childhood egg collector?
>
> Being a country kid in north west England at that time egg
> collecting was as popular as train spotting or stamp collecting.
> My collection was stored in the top drawer of my dressing table
> on a layer of cotton-wool.
>
> I spent many hours walking country lanes in search of nests,
> we never took all the eggs from a nest only one and the nest
> would be monitored until the young had fledged.
>
> I have vivid memories of climbing Hawthorn bushes to get at
> magpies nests only to find nothing for all the scratches and
> pricks.
>
> Lapwing and Waterhen eggs now this was different story we
> ate them, six Waterhen eggs made a nice omelette.
>
> We would use a thorn from an Hawthorn bush to make a small
> hole in each end of an egg, then blow out the contents.
>
> Eggs would be tested in water, at an early to advanced stage
> of incubation the eggs would float, a fresh laid egg would sink,
> fertile eggs where returned to the nest.
>
> Ian Clayton
> Townsville
> North Qld.
> Phone 07 4789 1306
>
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