Underground world of the egg collector

his wild bird egg collection -- the largest seized anywhere in the world

-- which will now be offered to the British Museum.

While Hemmings thought he was evading the attention of what he called

''the spies'' of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, his name

was well known to them and had been for some time. But it was only when

a member of the family, after a squabble, informed them officially that

his large egg collection was hidden in his house that they were able

legally to apply for a search warrant.

Despite earlier denials to the investigating officers that he had

never stolen an egg from a nest in his life, Hemmings has since admitted

that he has taken part in many such a raid. But he insisted that all

these incidents were before the 1981 Act under which he was charged.

All in all, the sad case highlights that there is an underground

movement of wild bird egg collectors who still actively raid nests --

very often in the Highlands of Scotland -- every spring.

They do their best to keep their names secret and operate largely

through a society known as the Jordanians, after a nineteenth-century

clerical wild bird egg collector.

Much of the information of the whereabouts of the nests of rare birds

come to them from from estate workers. Hemmings has often sped north of

the Border on a tip-off from the Highlands. He thought the RSPB knew

little about him but he was wrong and the court hearing in Dartford was

given a strange insight into the weird world of egg collectors.

Hemmings and his like are not criminals in the real sense of the word.

Certainly what they do is against the law, but even officials in the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds will concede that the problem

should be compared to drink and drug addiction rather than outright

theft.

Night after night, Hemmings sat in the loft of his house in Kent,

cataloguing his massive collection of 26,871 eggs. The only family of

birds he did not have were parrots and penguins.

He was amazed when investigation officers with the RSPB told him that

they would first have to catalogue his collection before interviewing

him in depth. In the event they found the task of identifying the vast

majority of the eggs quite simple. They relied largely on Hemmings's own

records, and he had done a good job. He knew the law well and falsified

his data cards to make it look that all his eggs were taken before the

Act under which he was convicted came into force.

Contrary to what most people believe, the active egg collector is not

necessarily interested in the rarest species in the world. For example,

many of them want to build up a major collection of the species that are

found in their own locality.

In John Hemmings's case, it appears, from his collection, that he was

obsessed by cuckoo eggs and many could not disguise their disgust at the

undercover operations perpetrated by the committed egg collector, nor

could they pretend that they were happy this collection was to be

offered to the British Museum. At the same time they did not want it

destroyed.

Hemmings kept records that showed the state of the egg when it was

taken from the nest; it could be 50% incubated. Schoolboys obviously

went nesting but it was always part of the honour of the game, that you

took only one egg from a clutch.

According to all the evidence open to the RSPB, wild bird collectors

go much further. If, for example, a bird would normally lay four eggs in

a nest and only two are laid, they will leave the nest alone until the

full clutch is laid. Only then will they remove the eggs. Should that

bird be of a species that will lay a second clutch, the RSPB have

evidence which shows the avid collector will come and snatch that too.

It will all be recorded in data cards.

When eggs are blown only one hole is drilled in the egg -- it has to

be as small as possible -- and air is introduced to push the content out

through the same hole. Hemmings's collection and data cards avidly

proved, this is not easy when say there is a chick embryo in the egg. In

that case the collector will introduce a solvent to disolve the embryo.

It is by no means certain that the British Museum will be prepared to

accept this infamous collection.

They were previously offered at least 10,000 eggs that formed its

bulk, and turned it down. More and more museums are becoming reluctant

to display in public wild bird collections -- just in case it encourages

the sort of crimes that Hemmings was convicted of yesterday.