SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE. 143 



bird-skins which adorn her bonnet. But that 

 would be onl}^ giving one more proof of our heart- 

 lessness ; and, besides, unless a man is down- 

 right angry he can scarcely feel that he has 

 really cleared himself when he has done nothing 

 more than to point the finger and say, You 're 

 another. However, I am not set for the defence 

 of ornithologists. They are abundantly able to 

 take care of themselves without the help of any 

 outsider. I only declare that, even to my un- 

 professional eye, this rule of theirs seems wise 

 and necessary. They know, if their critics do 

 not, how easy it is to be deceived ; how many 

 times things have been seen and minutely de- 

 scribed, which, as was afterwards established, 

 could not by any possibility have been visible. 

 Moreover, regret it as we may, it is clear that in 

 this world nobody can escape giving and taking 

 more or less pain. We of the sterner sex are 

 accustomed to think that even our blue-eyed 

 censors are not entirely innocent in this regard ; 

 albeit, for myself, I am bound to believe that 

 generally they are not to blame for the tortures 

 they inflict upon us. 



Granting the righteousness of the scientist's 

 caution, however, we may still find a less rigor- 

 ous code sufficient for our own non-scientific, 

 though I hope not unscientific, purpose. For it 

 is certain that no great enjoyment of bird study 



