An 1898 photo showing members of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, an organization that made a difference in wildlife conservation. Seated in the front row are Samuel Rhoads (23) and Witmer Stone (28). in the mid-1920s. He died in 1926. OTHER COLLECTIONS Another pursuit of Pennsylvania's pioneering naturalists was gathering songbird nests and eggs for scientific collections. At first, it was an activity driven purely by science. But as birds and their feathers became fashionable accessories to hats and outfits, statewide laws protecting songbirds and their nests were placed on the books - prior to the Civil War. But nest- and egg-taking continued. Originally, most eggs were thought to be taken in the name of science. But APRIL 2020 more and more people were taking eggs and nests to sell to museums and private collectors, or who kept them for their own personal collections. It occurred at a time when birds had legal protection, but no one to enforce those laws. And it was a problem that would continue after agency game wardens would start policing Penn's Woods. In the agency's 1904 Annual Report, Game Commission Executive Secretary Joseph Kalbfus wrote about the problems with the killing of song and insectivorous birds under what is called a certificate to take birds for "strictly scientific purposes." The 13