30 BIRDS 



feathers and skins preserved in arsenic and protected by 

 the fumes of bisulphid of carbon. If you are an amateur 

 I beg of you to remain as such. The tang of the out- 

 doors, with its glorious sunshine and pure, health-giving 

 air, is more seductive than glass cases and drawers filled 

 with specimens and noxious gases. I gladly relegate to 

 the scientist my interest in the laboratory division of 

 ornithology, and am content with hearing the unbottled 

 sweet songs and with seeing the bright natural plumage 

 and the unsurpassed poses and graceful flights of the 

 living birds. 



While I have, in a few instances, killed a rare migra- 

 tory bird in order to procure a good picture of it, I must 

 admit that in every instance this desperate procedure 

 robbed me of all pleasure in the work, as I have in- 

 variably had a feeling of guilt, remorse and shame, until 

 I have resolved not to repeat the practice. Although I 

 say that I detest the practice of killing large numbers of 

 birds for their skins, I understand the necessity of such 

 a course to procure specimens in order to fill a gap in a 

 public museum or in an educational institution. But the 

 same methods should not be tolerated in amateurs and 

 commercial skin and egg collectors. 



With the works of some of the famous ornithologists 

 before me — works that will live throughout all time — I 

 find in one this statement: ''Begin by shooting every 

 bird you see. ' ' Bird life is too beautiful to destroy to no 

 purpose. Yet, as if that were not enough, the writer 

 adds, ''Endeavor to kill as many females as males," and 

 continues : ' ' Fifty birds shot and skins preserved in a 

 day is a very good day's work." 



I say it is horrible butchery. Some are obeying the 

 injunction at the present time, or at least it would appear 

 so, when one reads in a late issue of a magazine devoted 

 to ornithology that eighty-seven specimens of one species 

 were killed that the juvenile plumage of the species might 

 be studied. 



An ornithologist, in a conversation last spring, 

 told me that he had over thirty thousands bird 

 skins. His field outfit consisted of a cheap camera, no 

 tripod, a pair of tree climbers and a small bore shotgun. 

 He said he had located a small flock of Carolina Pare- 



