Oology

Oology, as a hobby rather than as the branch of ornithology that studies bird eggs, nests and breeding behaviour under the same name, is the practice of collecting wild birds' eggs, also called egg collecting, birdnesting or egging. The word derives from the Greek oion, meaning egg. Once a widespread pastime, especially in Britain and North America, egg collecting as a hobby is now illegal in many jurisdictions, since removing eggs from wild nests can harm bird populations; historical oological collections nonetheless survive in museums and remain of scientific interest even as the hobby itself has been legislated against in most of the places it was once practiced.