112 CARE OF A COLLECTION. 



and quiet — they do not like to be disturbed at their meals, 

 nor even between times. So it results, that they rarely effect 

 permanent lodgment in a collection that is being constantly 

 handled — though the doors stand open for hours daily, they 

 will seek elsewhere. As a consequence, the degree of our 

 diligence in studying birdskins is likel}' to become the measure 

 of our success in preserving them. I once read a work, by an 

 eminent and learned divine, on the "Moral Uses of Dark 

 Things," under which head the author included everj^thing 

 from earthquakes to mosquitoes. If there be a moral use in 

 the "dark thing" that museum pests certainly are to us, we 

 have it here. The very bugs urge on our work. 



wim 



