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Egg Collection (1 Viewer)

M

mrpjdavis

Well-known member
First thing to say is that I am a fully-paid up member of the RSPB and WWT! However, I have a collection of about 100 eggs, roughly 50 species (All British). Most of them have been given to me and a lot have come from clearouts in Biology departments in schools where I have worked. The eggs are of no scientific value (no data) but include some rare ones such as Ruff and Hobby. I have no use for them, but they are still fascinating objects, and I don't want to throw them away. Does anybody out there have a good educational use for them? Obviously, I don't want them to go to anyone who might be interested in taking up egg collecting. I am happy to pay the postage/delivery.

Pete
 
Although I have no time for egg collectors,if this collection was put together pre 1950s,would it not be of interest to a local Museum or something.If not,I agree with the others....smash them up.
 
When I was a kid my Dad still had his schoolboy egg collection. When the 1981 act came in he donated them to Rutland Water and they went on display for a while.

I would get rid of them but agree with Katy that if there is a local museum, it might be worth seeing if they want them.

Matthew
 
Katy Penland said:
Just asking out of Yank ignorance of UK law, but why couldn't he donate them to a museum? :h?: Even anonymously?
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I think this quote from the RSPB site answers this.

Giving the eggs to someone else merely hands the problem on to them. It may be possible to give eggs to a museum, but it should be pointed out that museums will only accept eggs with accurate and reliable data.

Eggs that have no data with them are of no scientific value whatsoever, and no museum could justify the expense of storage and cataloguing. Egg collections are no longer openly displayed in museums.

The option of destroying a collection is distasteful to many people, especially if the eggs were once the property of a deceased relative. However, if a museum is not prepared to take them, and if the law is not to be broken, it is perhaps the only reasonable option. While the eggs may be lawfully given away to another person, this simply puts the same legal burden on them.
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No museum would be interested unless you could prove their provenance and would still just put them in a cupboard.
 
Thanks robinm

Thank you for that RSPB link. The eggs are nearly all pre 1954 and all are pre 1981, so I guess there is little or no legal liability attached to them. As the RSPB link says, investigators take a common sense view, in any case. As you have pointed out, they are of no scientific value because they have no provenance and will be of no interest to a local museum, because they are not a local collection.

As for smashing them, I can see that this an appropriate emotional response to the idea of egg collecting, but it seems a shame to destroy things which are so aesthetically pleasing and could be appreciated by someone. To me, it would just compound the destruction which was caused when they were first collected.

Anyway, so much for philosophy - any more ideas?

Pete
 
mrpjdavis said:
Anyway, so much for philosophy - any more ideas?
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No.

mrpjdavis said:
As for smashing them, I can see that this an appropriate emotional response to the idea of egg collecting, but it seems a shame to destroy things which are so aesthetically pleasing and could be appreciated by someone. To me, it would just compound the destruction which was caused when they were first collected.
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I think you'll find that most people's response would be that the destruction of this collection is the best thing for it. Its existence is a reminder of the appalling things that were done in the past and may act as encouragement to new "eggers".

Smash 'em
 
mrpjdavis said:
As for smashing them, I can see that this an appropriate emotional response to the idea of egg collecting, but it seems a shame to destroy things which are so aesthetically pleasing and could be appreciated by someone. Pete
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I agree that it seems a shame. Enjoy your collection.

Alan
 
robinm said:
I think this quote from the RSPB site answers this.

No museum would be interested unless you could prove their provenance and would still just put them in a cupboard.
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Thanks, Robin, I should've clicked on the link. :t:
 
Funny that legal action can be taken against someone for having an old egg collection, while habitat in the UK is being destroyed every day by new housing estates, roads, etc.

Destroying the countryside: legal

Having an old egg collection: potentially illegal

What's wrong with this picture?

While I think egg collecting is stupid and harmful, I can't see how someone's having an old egg collection affects modern-day conservation one way or the other.

Mr. Davis, if you like your collection, keep it. If you don't, then put it in the compost.

Adam
 
mrpjdavis said:
The eggs are nearly all pre 1954 and all are pre 1981, so I guess there is little or no legal liability attached to them.

As for smashing them, I can see that this an appropriate emotional response to the idea of egg collecting, but it seems a shame to destroy things which are so aesthetically pleasing and could be appreciated by someone.
Click to expand...


I think you are on shaky ground here, all the more so as there are schedule 1 species involved ...as the RSPB link points out, if it ever came to it, you need to "satisfy a court that the eggs were taken before September 1982". Can you do that? If the eggs are extremely old, probably yes, but you mention 'pre 1981' - if that means a few years prior to 1981, I would guess it impossible to prove either way. Then in this case, "it is up to you to show that your possession is lawful and not up to the prosecution to show otherwise. The prosecution has only to prove the actual possession"

The argument it is a shame to destroy something aesthetically pleasing cuts no ice, egg collectors of today surely collect for that purpose.


I would say destroy them, they serve no purpose
 
Blackstart said:
Destroying the countryside: legal

Having an old egg collection: potentially illegal

What's wrong with this picture?

While I think egg collecting is stupid and harmful, I can't see how someone's having an old egg collection affects modern-day conservation one way or the other.

Mr. Davis, if you like your collection, keep it. If you don't, then put it in the compost.

Adam
Click to expand...


Two wrongs don't make a right ...the two issues are unrelated and don't merit comparison.

An old collection can affect modern-day conservation:
- first, it can mask the actions of modern day collectors.
- second, even if its a remote possibility, it can kindle an interest to do likewise in someone who gets to see that collection. "Look at these, collected when I was a child, great experience wandering the hedges and byways, blah blah, blah."
 
mrpjdavis said:
Thank you for that RSPB link. The eggs are nearly all pre 1954 and all are pre 1981, so I guess there is little or no legal liability attached to them. As the RSPB link says, investigators take a common sense view, in any case. As you have pointed out, they are of no scientific value because they have no provenance and will be of no interest to a local museum, because they are not a local collection.

As for smashing them, I can see that this an appropriate emotional response to the idea of egg collecting, but it seems a shame to destroy things which are so aesthetically pleasing and could be appreciated by someone. To me, it would just compound the destruction which was caused when they were first collected.

Anyway, so much for philosophy - any more ideas?

Pete
Click to expand...
Your looking at it from the wrong angle , don't look and think how aesthetically pleasing they are, look at them and think that each egg there was a bird denied the chance of life. Smash them !
 
Counter productive?

Just a bit of lateral thinking for consideration....

Doesn't the wanton destruction of old egg collections advocated by the RSPB and some here simply add to the scarcity value of those which remain, and therefore increase their 'black-market' potential?

By the same token, will destroying old collections do anything whatsover to deter someone from becoming an egg collector, or will their lack of availability perhaps even encourage them to start?

Many of these old collections were made 50+ years ago when egg collecting was perfectly legal. Whether they collected them personally or not is immaterial, the present owners cannot be blamed for the malaise which has adversely affected the population of some species of UK birds in recent years.

In my opinion egg collecting is, and at its height only ever was, just the tip of a very big iceberg where the overall decline of birds is concerned. And contrary to what some of you would have us believe, the person who began this thread is NOT a criminal in any way, shape or form. It's time the self-appointed 'Egg Police' identified the real targets!
 
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