No. 20.] THE BIRDS OF CONNECTICUT. II 



such collecting will prevent a species from establishing itself in 

 our state; for experience has shown that birds have their nat- 

 ural limits, within which alone they can rear young successfully, 

 and that the reason any given species of North American bird 

 does not nest with us is that for some cause it finds the conditions 

 in the season of reproduction unfavorable, or that it is unable to 

 survive our winters, unless it is destroyed for sport or millinery. 

 The vain attempts of the Carolina Wren to obtain a foothold in 

 southern Connecticut are a case in point. Practically all our exact 

 knowledge of the usefulness of birds has been obtained by the 

 labor of ornithologists, often undertaken without thought of 

 pecuniary reward ; and it seems the height of ingratitude and folly 

 to impede their future work by the imposition of burdensome 

 regulations regarding collecting, or to forbid collecting entirely, 

 as has been done by some legislatures. For, if there is one thing 

 that is evident to those who have done much field work in 

 ornithology, it is that the collecting of birds and eggs for scien- 

 tific purposes, even by boys, can never appreciably reduce their 

 numbers, as long as they are protected from too much slaughter 

 in the name of sport, and their eggs and young are guarded 

 from cats, which probably do as much damage to the young 

 of our small useful birds near our towns and cities as all other 

 agencies combined. 



