The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-02-01
soGING ON THE TEXAS COAST.
Tubs and Barrels Full Gathered Up and
Sent to Market.

Tubs and Barrels Full Gathered Up and
Sent to Market.
"Egging" in years past has been a
regular business on the Texas coast II
is beginning to show results in a
marked decrease of bird life. But
there are still many places whore the
people turn to logging" as surely as
the season comes around. Fishermen
keep a sharp watch on the birds when
laying time is near They note the
hidden islands and the secluded beaches
where the birds Of all kinds are getting
ready for breeding Then the word is
passed along The whole population
turns out with every thing in the form
Of boat. A descent is made on the
breeding ground. The first visit is for
the purpose OF destroying every egg
that can be found This is to make
sure that all will be fresh on the next
visit After smashing the contents OF
the nests the eggers take to the boats
and go away far enough to give the
birds opportunity TO return.
The next day or the second day the
'egging" begins in earnest II the
first visit has been well timed, and it
usually is, for practice has made perfect
this robbery, there are found in the
nests many thousands of freshly laid
eggs. The eggers go from nest to nest.
gathering all, with the certainty that
there will be no spoiled among them
Only those who have seen one of these
breeding places on the Texas coast can
have any comprehension OF the vast
numbers of birds that assem- BILE in the
laying season on comparatively small
space The eggers find no difficulty in
gathering tubs and barrels full 1t is the
rule to take everything over an inch in
diameter except the pelican eggs, which
are too fshy to be palatable. For days
after the return of the eggers there
are eggs to be had in almost any guam
tity and at almost any price. An orni-
biologist who examined one OF these
breeding places before the eggers
reached it found that 10, 900 birds were
laying.
This breeding place was no larger
than a city block. The birds were
gulls, terms, herons and So on. There
were between IS, 900 and 20, 600 eggs on
the little grassy space Some of these
eggs are very fragile and a large per-
centage is broken in the gathering.
Still, enough reach the towns to glut
the market. Some of these gulls and
terms do a very strange thing when
driven from the nests by the eggars.
They dart about and with feet and
wings and bills they destroy all ips
eggs they can in the vicinity before the
eggers reach them. They seem to rea-
lie the purpose of the visit and DELHI
erately set about thwarting that pur.
pose.
Immense numbers of the birds would
be bred along the Texas coast if it were
not for the egging sport The orni-
biologists say that the people will
bring retribution if they do not stop.
The pelicans, gulls and herons are the
scavengers of the shoal waters, just as
the buzzards are on land. The punish
ment for shooting buzzards is severe
in Texas. If it were not for the work
the water birds do along the coast the
excess of valueless fishes and other ami
NAL life bred in the shadows would Gre
ate such stencil that human life about
the bays would be out of the question.
St Louis Republic