Show 4 p 4 his eggs are more precious to him I 1 hall diamonds says ir squires ile is shown here with drawers of his collection which is one of the largest aud best in the country ile has more than eggs carefully cataloguer catalogued catalo gued not engineering he is away in pursuit of eggs at the time of writing lie he has a collection of some c eggs 9 gs representing species indigenous n ous to the atlantic coastal states f from born the mountains of maine to the everglades of florida this makes his collection one of the finest in the country the hobby of collecting b birds ir d s eggs is a highly scientific one and is is not without its hazards too mr squires has spent many hours through the past 45 years in ornithological th research learning to identify birds know their habitat how they behave what they eat and just about everything else about them including their love life with all this knowledge at his fingertips the expert knows where to look for the nest of any given bird more important lie he knows when to look for it that is when it will hold the eggs he wants the expert takes the eggs soon after they have been laid he blows out the contents immediately and catalogues cataloguer catal his new acquisitions handling them as carefully as if they were jewels As indeed they are to him fragile jewels that require the delicate touch of the master egg hunter s p X the large egg is that ot of a sand crane measuring four inches long the small one is a house wrens which is even tinier than a humming birds being only a half inch in length these represent the limits in size in squires collection the american ornithologists union has assigned a number to every species and subspecies sub species of north american bird |