Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Blaðsíða 130
138
The Collection of Wild Birds’ Eggs and Nestlings in Sweden
The penalty was doubled for a second offence. It is difficult to
assess the effect of these regulations. In any case, egg-collecting, to
all appearances, continued to be very common and later ordinances
allowed for the occasional collecting of eggs (cf. Hahr, 1880, p.
150), primarily, of course, for household needs.
The collecting of eggs from the nests of wild birds was easily
accomplished and required no special contrivances. We seldom read
of anyone giving the birds a helping hand in the breeding season.
However, this did happen in Lapland, where in the spring brush-
wood was carried out to the islands where it was known that the
red-breasted merganser generally bred (E.u. 11538 and 20428).
Special nesting-holes might also be arranged (Ekman, 1910, pp.
196 f., with picture). Perhaps it should also be recorded that col-
lectors might stake their claims to the nests by planting a stick
alongside them, thus showing that they had been there first and
thereby had a right to the eggs (see, for example, Wibeck, 1927).
Of greater interest is the egg-collecting which took place under
more specific forms—what Storá calls “intensive” collecting.
This refers chiefly to the birds which nest in holes, in the case of
Sweden primarily the duck, the goldeneye and the goosander.
These species willingly use the cavities in the trees made by the
black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius). When these cavities were
used by birds which laid edible eggs, it was a comparatively simple
matter to collect as many as were needed for the household. Collec-
ting eggs in this way is also reported from other parts of Sweden.
However, the collectors went further, in that they constructed
artificial nesting-boxes, which could then be placed at strategic
points. The lack of suitable trees meant that these artificial nests
were well populated and attracted new flocks of desirable birds.
These nesting-boxes might consist of a sawn-off tree trunk, in which
a suitable cavity had been made and which was often placed on a
stone or other elevated place. Bird-boxes of this type, covered by
a slab of wood or a flat stone, are known from Jámtland and also
from central Sweden (communication from Sodertorn by Sigurd
Erixon; Haugard, 1922, pp. 65 ff.; Wibeck, 1922). An interesting
variant of this type, with a special hole with a hatch at the bottom,