62 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



Arriving at Warrensburg, after arranging for 

 ways of living and a place to work, an interview 

 with Professor Straight gave me an idea of what 

 he had in view in the way of collections. These 

 were to be chiefly ornithological and mainly for 

 study purposes, and in the form technically known 

 as birdskins. Each bird was to be prepared so 

 that it had the appearance of a dead bird, carefully 

 labeled with the locality where it was obtained, 

 and the sex and date of capture. Such specimens 

 could be handled, examined, measured, and com- 

 pared, which is obviously not possible, without 

 damage, to a mounted bird. I also prepared a 

 few birds in characteristic, lifelike positions and 

 instructed Professor Straight in both kinds of 

 work. What he particularly wished me to do was 

 to try to accumulate, during the coming three 

 months in Warrensburg, a representative collec- 

 tion of the birds of that region, together with such 

 a series of each species as would not only afford 

 facilities for comparisons in individual variation 

 and other problems, but would also give him a 

 sufficient number of duplicates of most kinds to 

 enable him to make exchanges with ornithologists 

 in other parts of the country, and thus round out 

 the collection to more than local proportions. 



Warrensburg was a typical Missouri town of 

 the period. The people were nearly all of south- 

 ern origin; for following the well-known law of 



