214 ASHBY, R.A.O.U. Congress Tisfjan" 



the commercial issue, the only restriction ret|uired, if it could be 

 properly enforced, is to insist that every bird killed shall be 

 made into a skin. 



Instead of the members of our L'nion using their powers in 

 discouraging or preventing the Australian youth from taking up 

 the laborious work of the making of collections of skins, it should 

 throw its whole weight into the other scale. 



Insist, if you will, that neither eggs nor skins be taken with- 

 out the preservation of accurate data, but if we really love 

 our people, and recognise any resjionsibility to future generations, 

 do what we can to multiply, not restrict, real student collectors. 



A TRUE SENSE OF rROPORTION. 



On the 14th June last I had the privilege of addressing the 

 leading British ornithologists as the guest of the British Ornith- 

 ologists' Club. After giving them the warm invitation of this 

 Union to send representatives to the Adelaide Congress, I re- 

 ferred to the seven resolutions now under discussion, and in 

 addition quoted from our Hon. Secretary's letter, in which he 

 referred to the proposal to declare a 30-mile radius round Mel- 

 bourne as a bird sanctuary. I claimed that it was the height 

 of folly to shut out half of the growing j)opulation of the State 

 of Victoria from any chance of becoming real student collectors. 

 I asked for their united opinion as to whether a much more 

 liberalised policy was not highly desirable? To this I received 

 the heartiest and most unanimous support. 



Further, in conversation with some of England's greatest 

 ornithologists, I explained that where possible 1 supported my 

 papers in the Bviu with reference to skins actually taken and 

 compared, but in some cases reference to the taking of tli€ skins 

 was eliminated. These British ornithologists expressed the 

 opinion that such a policy was absolutely fatal to the true scien- 

 tific value of the work. 



For to lay claim to being scientilic is to lay claim to accuracy 

 and truth. In such a wide and varied continent as Australia, 

 the hard work of obtaining and jireserving skins is an essential 

 correlation to all, or nearly all, field notes. 



The president of the Audubon Society followed me at the 

 B.O. Club dinner. He stated that about five million licences to 

 shoot are issued annually by the U.S..\.. and certainly fully two 

 million more forget to take out licences. That something over 

 a thousand permits for student collecting are issued; in fact, 

 that no genuine application for student collecting is refused. 



The United vStates of America are in area a little less than 

 the Australian Continent, and are occupied by one hundred and 

 ten million people. To get a parallel of Australia's present 

 position we must, I suppose, go back, or nearly so, to the days 



