[Nhcoll-l] avian eggshells — labeling

Wed Mar 27 10:18:46 EDT 2019

Hi,

As Cindy notes, many collectors didn’t follow the standard.  AOU numbers are only relevant for the US (not sure about Canadian collectors) and the further back you go the more likely other species numbering systems are.  Outside of North America there are probably dozens of numbering systems, typically based on an authoritative ornithology for the area (and what was available to the collector at the time they were working).  It may also depend on whether it is a local collector or a collector visiting from outside the area (e.g. Iceland species largely overlap with UK species so a UK collector in Iceland may use a UK species numbers).

Even dates can be very tricky.  Numbers like 3.28 may refer to March 1928 as not all egg collectors recorded full dates.  Be aware that European and British collectors often (always?) recorded dates as dd.mm.yy while Americans often used mm.dd.yy (not sure about Canadians).  Some collectors used roman numerals for the month, which is helpful.  Some will also use a system around the hole with day/month on the left side and year on the right side.  A reality check for dates is helpful- compare the date on the egg to known dates for that species to breed to avoid obvious errors.  Remember that in tropical and southern hemisphere areas the breeding season is different from what it is in temperate North America.  E.g. March is a reasonable nest date for Brown Pelican.

Having the collector notebooks or data cards will really help.  You don’t mention data cards- most collectors recorded full clutch information on data cards and some also used notebooks and if you’re lucky (or know the donor and can ask) data cards or notebooks will have come with the collection. It looks like you have eggs from a variety of collectors.  This is not uncommon- collectors tended to do a lot of buying/selling/trading (there were businesses that sold eggs to collectors).  If you don’t have the notebooks/data cards you can sometimes get some ideas by looking on Vertnet or GBIF for eggs collected in the same time/place and then seeing if other museums have a lot of that collector’s clutches and thus may have the notebooks or data cards.  I think all egg collections of any size have eggs without data cards and data cards without eggs.  It’s a giant matching exercise complicated by the fact that eggs and data cards may be at different institutions.

Good luck!  Jean

Jean L. Woods, Ph.D.                                                       Phone: 302-658-9111 x314
Curator of Birds                                                         Fax: 302-658-2610
Delaware Museum of Natural History                      jwoods at delmnh.org<mailto:jwoods at delmnh.org>
P.O. Box 3937                                                            www.delmnh.org<http://www.delmnh.org/>
(4840 Kennett Pike)
Wilmington, DE  19807

Feast on the Beach: The Delaware Bay Horseshoe Crab Shorebird Connection<http://www.delmnh.org/feast-on-the-beach/> – a film from the Delaware Shorebird Project

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Adriana Lopez Villalobos
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2019 10:12 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Cc: Karen Ong <13ko2 at queensu.ca>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] avian eggshells — labeling

Hello all,
I need some guidance here.
I am cataloguing an orphan collection of avian eggshells and I’m having a hard time making sense of the labeling system on some of the specimens.
The dates on the paper labels (and in some cases on the actual eggshells) range from the late 1880’s to 1991, and eggshells come from North America, the Bahamas Islands, Ireland, Iceland and Asia Minor. From what I understand the method for labeling avian eggshells has changed over the decades, but labeling often includes three different numbers: 1) a 3 digit reference number for the species (i.e. AOU code), 2) a set mark (number of nests the collector sampled from that day), and 3) the clutch size that egg came from. Some of our eggshells seem to follow this pattern (Fig. 1), however there are some that have two three-digit numbers (Figs. 2 & 3), a combination of numbers and letters (Figs. 4 & 5), and some that have numbers with decimal points and letters (Fig. 3 & 6).
Does anyone know if there is an international bird species reference list (with nomenclature updated, hopefully) that uses a 3-digit numerical coding system (i.e. the AOU or something else)?
Is it possible that some of the numbers correspond to the collector’s own catalogue numbering system?
I am not sure how to decipher the information on these eggshells so any helpful links or tips to understanding these types of avian eggshells labels would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Photos below
[cid:image001.jpg at 01D4E485.DC9DCF20]
Fig 1. White Pelican (6-3-91) specimen from Pyramid Lake, Nevada that appears to follow the standard method of 3-digit species reference number, set mark/clutch size (125, 4/2)

[cid:image002.jpg at 01D4E485.DC9DCF20]
Fig 2. Swanson’s hawk (no date), appears to have 2 separate reference numbers or maybe a collector's catalogue number.

[cid:image003.jpg at 01D4E485.DC9DCF20]
Fig 3. Brown Pelican (no date) egg specimen labelled as (616, 3.28, 641).

[cid:image004.jpg at 01D4E485.DC9DCF20]
Fig 4. Western red-tailed hawk specimen (1991) that has a 3-digit numerical code followed by a letter, ‘337b’.

[cid:image005.jpg at 01D4E485.DC9DCF20]
Fig 5. Seven double-crested cormorant eggs (no date) labelled as ‘a-e/3’ or ‘a-e/4’. Unsure what ‘a-e’ refers to but number indicates clutch size.

[cid:image006.jpg at 01D4E485.DC9DCF20]
Fig 6. Night Heron specimen (1899) collected from Plum Island, NY that appears to have a reference or catalogue number. Unsure what ‘(70. E)’ refers to.

Adriana Lopez-Villalobos, Ph.D.
Collections and Data Manager
Fowler Herbarium (QK)
Queen's University Biological Station (QUBS) URL: https://qubs.ca
280 Queen’s University Road, RR #1, Elgin, Ontario, KOG 1E0
adriana.lopez.villalobos at queensu.ca<mailto:adriana.lopez.villalobos at queensu.ca>

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