■INTRODUCTION. 6 



at least has not been known to breed in the eastern United 

 States.3 



"Bird-collecting, on the other hand, unavoidably leads to 

 more or less cruelt}', in many cases to absolute barbarity, 

 and is at present carried to an alarming excess. Slaughter 

 by hundreds should be permitted among only a few eminent 

 and competent naturalists, such as Messrs. Allen and Coues. 

 Otherwise, it becomes an outrage upon nature, a positive in- 

 jury to science, and a mere source of self-gratification. Young 

 collectors, who are not to become scientists, sliould form their 

 collections for the sake of beauty in nature, and might well 

 be satisfied with two good specimens, well-mounted, of each 

 kind, namely: the mature male and female. In the case of 

 a scientific collection this would be wholly inadmissible, and 

 collectors should certainly shoot any specimen of a kind never 

 before taken in that district where they may chance to meet 

 it, or those birds which they find in a country new to them- 

 selves, or perhaps to all ornithologists. Otherwise, may I 

 venture to ask what new facts one can make known from own- 

 ing the skins of several hundred unfortunate robins ? All our 

 rarer birds, or tliose of market-value, are in danger of being 

 altogether exterminated, through a foolish sense of glory on 

 man's part, or through his reckless destruction of other than 

 human life. It is also to be regretted that so many birds are 

 shot, before laying their eggs, owing to the condition of their 

 plumage and their abundance, during or immediately after 

 their spring migrations. Nature's resources should be drawn 

 upon onl}' in cases of necessity, or in contribution to the ad- 

 vancement of mankind. Violation of nature, as of the natural 



' See farther § 13, 1, D and E, for the very slight distinction between the War- 

 bling and Philadelphia Vireo. 



