58 The liish Naturalist. 



In Ireland, fortunately, there has not been, so far at least, 

 the wholesale plundering that has so devastated some of the 

 English and Scotch bird-nurseries, but it is well that we 

 should understand the condition of affairs, and be prepared 

 to discountenance and prevent, by every means in our power, 

 the unnecessary destruction of birds' eggs. 



Not that we would have the egg-collector abolished, or 

 driven an exile from our shores. Oology is an interesting 

 and instructive study, and claims our sympathy as much as 

 the many branches of natural science which require the 

 sacrifice of animal life. But the collector forfeits our regard 

 who allows his greed for large series, and craze for clutches of 

 eggs, to master the feelings of fair play and humanity which 

 every naturalist should possess. Mr. Knubley writes : — 



" Fancy fifteen clutches of the eggs of the Peregrine Falcon in the 

 same collection, and twenty of the Chough ; and what can we say of one 

 collector whose boast it is to possess over one hundred Scottish-taken 

 eggs of the Golden Eagle ? Would he take kindly to the suggestion of 

 one of the members of the British Association, that he should have the 

 feathers of the birds presented to him, with the addition of a little tar?" 



Colonel Duthie tersely describes the various types of egg- 

 collecting offenders. He says : — 



" There are three kinds of collectors who require to be specially dealt 

 with, viz : the Aimless, the Greedy, and the Mercenary Collector. 



" The Aimless Collector should be discouraged. He is generally a person 

 who knows little or nothing about birds or their habits. His collection 

 is an accumulation of unauthenticated specimens stored away in ill- 

 arranged boxes, totally regardless of order, species, or locality, and is 

 useless to himself and of no interest to science. 



"The Greedy Collector should be restmined. He should be satisfied, 

 as a rule, with one clutch of eggs of each bird, with an occasional 

 addition of an abnormal clutch or &gg for comparison. 



"The Mercenary Collector should be abolished. He it is who is mainly 

 responsible for the extermination of species and waste of eggs. His 

 collection is the result of gold, changed into silver and copper as it 

 filters through the hands of dealers, gamekeepers, shepherds, herd- 

 boys, and others, who, often in direct disobedience of orders from their 

 employers, have robbed many an important eyrie, and with indiscrimina- 

 ting ignorance have swept some of our bird-nurseries bare. The size 

 and value of this collector's store depends upon the length of his purse, 

 and while proud to tell the market value of a particular ^gg, he may be 

 unable to describe the bird that laid it, or the nest in which it was 

 found. 



. "The True Collector should be a Naturalist, acquainting himself with 

 birds, their habits, flight, migration, language, and breeding haunts ; his 



