1915] The Ottawa Naturalist. 2.7 



To hope that each of our counties will have facilities for 

 the proper and safe storage for such valuable objects is perhaps 

 to wish for the millennium. However, man}-- of the provinces 

 are establishing museums, that should develop into just such 

 repositories for provincial data and we hope the time is not 

 distant when this use of them will be more highly and scien- 

 tifically developed. In the meantime we have a Dominion 

 Museum, that is prepared not only to store but to scientifically 

 use such material and is slowly building up a national collec- 

 tion for future Canadian students in proportion with the growing 

 dignity of the country it represents. It is to be hoped that the 

 time will come when it will take equal rank with other national 

 museums of the world, the British Museum, the Smithsonian 

 Institute and others of like repute. To do so, however, requires 

 the co-operation and SA^mpathy of the Canadian people as a 

 whole. No public institution can do all the necessary work 

 itself but must rely largely in the building up of its collections 

 and prestige upon the interest and aid of the people it represents. 

 Thus grew the great British Museum through the practical help 

 of its private friends into an institution that is an imperial pride. 

 On this side of the water the scientific and enthusiastic generosity 

 of such men as Roosevelt, Abbot and others who donate 

 large collections resulting from their sporting expeditions at 

 home and in various parts of the world to the public good, as 

 represented by their national institutions, has gone far to place 

 the Smithsonian Institution well into the forefront of scientific 

 progress. Our people should be no less interested in the advance- 

 ment of our institutions than those abroad are to theirs. The 

 government alone can never raise its museums to a commanding 

 position in the world; the people in their private character 

 as individuals only can bring about that consummation and with 

 them the future of zoological science rests in Canada, as well as 

 elsewhere . 



On the economic side of ornithology much work remains 

 to be done. So far we have been content to draw from the 

 results of the United States Biological Survey and other workers 

 across the international boundary. In so far as they treat of 

 our species, their problems are our problems and it is question- 

 able whether we want to duplicate their work. They have al- 

 ready developed an elaborate technical staff of specialists and 

 special facilities besides gathering an immense amount of 

 material and data. We could not compete with their efficiency 

 for many years. It seems, except in the case of special problems 

 of peculiar Canadian interest, we can do better by leaving the 

 bulk of such investigation to them, co-operating when possible 



