312 CHISHOI.M. /'riralc CoUccthuj TsfApHi" 



]jotential ornithologists, either generally or in i)art. They may, 

 indeed, have a contrary effect. 



As a member of what we may term the younger school, I am 

 loth to sit in judgment on a veteran, and one whose ability is 

 undeniable ; but it is a duty to express the view that certain of 

 J\lr. Ashby's advice is close to being pernicious. 'J'his state- 

 ment is made impersonally, of course, but by one who has been, 

 in recent years, a good deal closer to educative bird work than 

 any collector. In point of fact, the private collector, be he ever 

 so sincere, is heavily handicapped as a put)lic instructor or pro- 

 pagandist. He may preach all over South Australia; he may 

 preach in any other country; he may rise to eloquence in his 

 championship of a fauna; but — where does he arrive? Always 

 his moralising is damned by the force of bad exami)le. Chastity 

 is the first essential of any Salvationist. 



Mr. Ashby's general attitude, I take it, is that the public at 

 large should be encouraged to protect birds, and that youngsters 

 who promise (or threaten) to be "real student collectors" (what- 

 ever that may mean ) should be stimulated — and that by the 

 R.A.O.U. ! — to carry on the noble work of amassing ])rivate col- 

 lections of skins or t^g'?'. W'hat an ideal is this! How profitable 

 for the youth who is adjudged (or adjudges himself) a "real 

 student collector" ! How luckless the lad who falls outside this 

 category ! — who is not able to show his envious fellows case upon 

 case of bird bodies or eggs ! vSeriously, though, the two things — 

 public i)rotection and private collecting — are largely incompatible. 

 I do not doubt the force of Mr. Ashby's pleading in the interests 

 of ornithology. It may be that his "numberless lectures" have 

 not been so much wasted effort. Rut — well, did he e\er fit into 

 a dialogue of this kind : 



Child: What pretty bird.sl But why don't they fly and sins'? 



Lecturer: They are dead, my dear — long dead. 



Child: 00-oo-oh! Who killed them? 



Lecturer: I killed them myself. 



Child: What did you kill them for? 



And did Mr. Ashby, serenely maintaining his scientific com- 

 posure, gaze into the accusing young eyes and reply that he killed 

 all those birds so that the children could "view the bodies" ( as 

 is written of visits to morgues), and learn thereby how good and 

 wise it is to be killers also? Similarly, did Mr. Ashby ever 

 tumble into a dialogue of the kind with the omnipotent individuals 

 known as the man in the street and the man on the land!" ( )f 

 what avail to tell such disciples of the obvious that the birds 

 were shot in the interests of vScience? One man, in all ])roba- 

 bility. would iiKpiire what need or right existed to usurp the 

 functions of a museum ; while the other would, most likely, grin 

 indulgently at the arrogance of the man who ^ays, "I may kill, 

 but you may not!" Xo, it will nol do. The man who ])reaches 



