Delos and wife Ellen Hatch on the Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin. From the Oologist for the student of birds, their nests and eggs 1917
Joseph Delos Hatch was born in 1842 in Florida, NY to Orin and Emma Hatch. In 1853 when they moved to Wisconsin, his adopted sister, Ellen died during the move and was left behind on a hillside in New York State (Hone Road Cemetery, Otsego county).
Delos served in the Civil War, Company K of the 10th Wisconsin Infantry from Sep 1861 to Nov 1864. He was enlisted at Leroy, WI, wounded at Chapel Hills, KY, and prisoner at Chattanooga. (per Find a Grave)
He was a farmer by trade and although colorblind, he collected bird skins, eggs, shells and minerals and is listed in the 1898 Naturalist Directory.
At around the age of 78, Delos took up gardening and embroidering as he could no longer climb trees for eggs. A 1928 article noted that he has embroidered over 400 pieces.
There are articles about Delos including photographs of his egg collection with some from Asia and Europe published from 1883 to 1932. (See Exhibit binder)
Delos died in 1932 in Oakfield, WI at the age of 90.
The Pember collection has two sets of Delos’s eggs and the Williams collection had two sets with one being collected in 1880 and sent to another collector in 1896. The egg set on display is from 1881!
1883 The Oologist – Night Herons Breeding on the Marsh
While collecting on the marsh I noticed many Night Herons, and enquired of the hunters and trappers if they found any nests in the trees on the islands in the marsh, but they did not, but had found the nesting place on the marsh. I went for them with a boy for guide. We rowed up a channel as near the place as possible, when they began to leave their nests in the grass and rushes. When forty rods off we left the boat and waded. The bogs are a kind of floating sod, with two or three feet of mud and water under them, and sink at each step. The first nest was in the rushes and built of rushes, about one foot high and about the same width, with just hollow enough to keep the eggs from rolling out. Other nests were in the grass, but most of them were in the cat tail flags, in holes which had been burned in the dry time. The nests in the flags were built of pieces of flags, both leaves and stalk. Those in the grass were built of rushes and flags. The nests contained from one to five eggs each, but mostly three—two sets of five and a number with four. I took about forty sets that day—the larger sets were incubated, but about half were fresh. I went a second time to the marsh and got a lot of eggs. — Delos Hatch, Oak Centre, Wis.
