''The Egg Collector'' is a 1940 Warner Bros. ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 1970s to the ...

'' directed by

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, pro ...

. The short was released on July 20, 1940, and stars Sniffles.

Plot

Late one night in a bookstore, Sniffles the mouse is reading the book ''Egg Collecting For Amateurs''. According to the book, a good specimen for beginners is the egg of a great barn owl, a fictional species (previously seen in ''Little Brother Rat''), which seemingly combines aspects of the

American barn owl The American barn owl (''Tyto furcata'') is usually considered a subspecies group and together with the western barn owl group, the eastern barn owl group, and sometimes the Andaman masked owl, make up the barn owl, cosmopolitan in range. The ba ...

with the

Great Horned Owl The great horned owl (''Bubo virginianus''), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extre ...

. (Sniffles apparently does not remember his earlier attempt to get an egg from this same intimidating owl in ''Little Brother Rat''.) Sniffles' friend, a bookworm, takes him to the top of an old church tower where they find an owl egg. Sniffles snatches the egg from its cradle, but the father owl stops them before they can escape. Sniffles learns from the owl that he is a

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

and that owls eat rodents. And worms. The bookworm faints and Sniffles flees madly, taking the worm with him.

Home media

* VHS: Bugs Bunny and Friends 1989 (1995 Turner Dubbed Version) * The NTSC Dubbed Version replaces original music 1938-1941 ending music theme. With 1941-1955 and In turn the European 1995; Dubbed Version keeps 1938-1941 ending music theme. Same As Mighty Hunters * DVD,

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

: Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection (2012)

References

External links

The Egg Collector
at the Internet Movie Database 1940 films 1940 animated films Merrie Melodies short films Films about mice and rats Films about worms Films about owls Short films directed by Chuck Jones Films scored by Carl Stalling Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films {{MerrieMelodies-stub