74 THREE KINGDOMS. 



stronger temptations to idle plunder than the average 

 youth can resist. Yet great harm is done by an indis- 

 criminate robbery of eggs ; and while oology, if scien- 

 tifically pursued, is an entirely commendable and val- 

 uable study, yet we have felt obliged to impose certain 

 not severe restrictions upon its pursuit in connection 

 with our Association. Our attitude is sufficiently de- 

 fined by the following extract from an editorial note 

 in our official organ, The Swiss Cross : 



There is no conflict between scientific study and a gentle spirit 

 of mercy. There are, indeed, times when the interests of science 

 require the suffering, and even the death, of insect, bird, and 

 beast ; but every true scientist shrinks from these necessary occa- 

 sions, and makes them as few as possible. There is no room for 

 cruelty in any laboratory. Whenever pain must be caused, it 

 must be made as slight and as short as it can be made. When- 

 ever life must be taken, it must be taken reverently, as a costly 

 sacrifice, and in the speediest and most merciful manner. The 

 responsibility of drawing the delicate line which is to divide be- 

 tween the cursed ground of cruelty and that honorable but sor- 

 rowful region in which the claims of science may properly assume 

 supremacy at the cost of pain, has been forced upon us by the re- 

 quests of many persons to publish notices of the desired exchange 

 of bird-skins for bird-skins, and of eggs for eggs ; and, on the 

 other hand, by the simultaneous and equally strenuous prayers of 

 well-meaning philozoists, that we would strictly refuse to counte- 

 nance at all either the killing of birds or the taking of eggs. The 

 solution of the question, which we have reached after long consid- 

 eration, is included in the following rule, which we shall hence- 

 forth adopt, with reference to the publication of such exchange 

 notices : 



Notices of the exchange of birds' eggs or bird-skins "will be 

 pointed in 'The Swiss Cross' provided that the person sending 

 the notice shall be a member in good standing of the Agassiz Asso- 

 ciation, that his collections shall have been made in conformity to 

 the laws of the State in which he may reside, and that the descrip- 

 tion of his material for exchange shall be in terms siifficiently 

 accurate to indicate that he is doing scientific work. 



The egg-collector's outfit consists of a pair of 

 climbers, a suit of stout clothing (buttons riveted 



