Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-03-03
By Gene Harry Day.

- Edward ]. Court of the United
States Geological Survey has
Il spent his vacation days in
climbing 100-foot trees, seal
ing precipitous cliffs and sliding down
. rope from dizzy and dangerous
crags, risking his neck and daring
death practically every time he ram
bled to woods or mountains in quest
Of the treasured eggs of rare birds.
This Washingtonian has Travelled in
excess of $4,000 miles in Is different
States and the District in collecting
over 10000 eggs of some 312 species
of North American birds. His collec-
ton is now recognized as probably the
best possessed by amateur oologist,
ornithologist or field naturalist south
of Philadelphia. In its accumulation
the owner has met with enough ad-
venture and fascinating experience to
!, cram q book from frontispiece to
"finis."
Recital about the hobby horse which
Mr.. Court has ridden so assiduously is
particularly intriguing in that this
collector combatted courageously and
measurably conquered an overwhelm-
, ing handicap in his indefatigible hunt
ing after birds eggs. The flip of fate
was unjust and nature was cruel when
they dealt out serious case of in
fantile paralysis to this native Wash
ingtonian during childhood days. The
only recompense has been that the
physical affection was indirectly re-
sponsible for the lad becoming inter-
H.. o,ol vi o,,Io I'll
song birds. 1t so happened that young
Courts grandfather was a rural
physician who lived in the country
near Beltsville, Md. At the age of Z
the youngster went to live with his
grandfather. where the physician
could study his case carefully and
where the boy would have the run Of
q wonderfully inviting outdoors.
ID GAMING fields and woodlands at
~ will, the city youngster was fasci-
mated by the notes and calls of the
song birds. His youthful interest in
the avian tenorS and sopranos even
tually led him to the trees where they
made their nests and raised their
young. Despite the handicap Of a
heavy steel brace and crippled foot
which dragged on the ground, the boy
began to climb trees One day he dis
covered a cat birds nest containing
three eggs. Proud as prince, the lad
carried the eggs to his grandfather,
who bored small holes in the ends so
that the contents drained from the
shells. Those eggs were the beginning
Of the Court collection.
A far cry from that day in 1883
when the blowing of eggs was an I'M
known art to high school training
when young Court first began to study
zoology and the A, B, C'S of oology-
the science of eggS-in an amateur
way. Fortunately, about that time, he
became acquainted with Maj. Charles
E. Bendire, then curator of the divi-
sion of birds eggs of the National
Museum. Maj. Bendire recommended
books for study and. to certain ex-
tent, supervised the technical educa-
ton Of the youth. That direction
started Court on the right trail. From
then to now he has persisted in his
studies. Today he rates as one of the
best-informed experts on the bird life
Of the District of Columbia, Maryland.
Virginia and contiguous States.
Despite his So birthdays. every week
end still finds Mr. Court. with dog,
pipe and gun, roaming the woodlands
in quest of birds eggs When it Games
to a question of climbing he's man
size stimulation of a monkey. That
author who has nationalized his popu-
lar Tarzan tales must have known
Mr.. Court and used some of the
latter's thrilling escapades in trees
and on ropes as basic material. Armed
with his 50-foot collapsible steel
ladder, his climbing irons with Sig
inch spurs, his favorite rope-it is 125
feet in length and inch in diameter
and a supplementary rope 6lt feet
long, Court is QUILTED to either
climb or descend to perilous perches
where rare birds deposit their eggs in
isolated nests. He'll Shiny up a So
foot tree in the same time you would
require to walk $50 feet. 1t is no
miStreatment of the truth to say that
Ed Court time and again has wormed
his way to altitudinouS cliffs and
tree tops where not one man in the
average 10000 would dare to venture.
It is in such remote and relatively
secure sites that birds which are
almost extinct lay their eggs. And
1t is the rare eggs which the modern
oologist covets most keenly. Which
adds calculation to why the birdman
willingly risks life, limb and future
pursuit Of happiness in gaining the
choicest egg trophies obtainable.
Mr.. Court has taken eggs from all
Of the 148 species of birds that nest
and breed within a 100-mile radius
Of our National Capital. Biological
Survey scouts report 308 species and
sub-species of birds as either perma-
nent residents or transients in the
District, but less than one-half of
that total nest here, the balance be-
ing migratory flyers; many are sun
followers that Summer in the North
and Winter in the South. The eggs
in the Court collection run the gamut
from diminutive eggs of the hum
ming bird, about the size of a navy
bean, to those of the Canadian goose
the largest specimen available in this
country, one of the goose eggs being
about the size of an ostrich egg.
80 oor,r>,r