Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 64<1 



Conserve the Collector. — ^\i\ Josepli Grinnell, of the 

 California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley, 

 California, has sent us a copy of an article recently con- 

 tributed by him to ' Science ' (vol. xli, pp. 229-232) under 

 the above title. He states that in America the type of 

 field observer who depends solely on long range identi- 

 fication is becoming more and more prevalent, but that the 

 opera-glass student even if experienced cannot be depended 

 upon to take the place of the collector. Accuracy of 

 identification of species and especially of subspecies rests for 

 final appeal upon the actual capture and comparison of 

 specimens. Ornithology as a science is threatened, and it 

 should not be allowed to lapse wholly into the status of a 

 recreation or a hobby to be indulged in only in a superficial 

 way by amateurs or dilettantes. 



The movement against collecting and collectors and the 

 restrictions in regard to obtaining permits for collecting for 

 scientific purposes have perhaps become more acute in the 

 TInited States than they have in England. Here game-laws 

 and the possession of large tracts of land by single owners 

 have prevented the great destruction of bird-life, and espe- 

 cially of game-birds, which has taken place to so great an 

 extent of late years in America. Still one notices a strong 

 tendency in the same direction in England. There can be 

 no doubt that observation with glasses and camera- work 

 must be combined with collecting and skinning to form a 

 good field ornithologist, and we would strongly endorse 

 Mr. GrinnelTs plea for the "conservation of the col- 

 lector.'' 



Notice to Members. — It is proposed to publish a list of all 

 the Members of the Union who have been or are serving in 

 any branch of His Majesty's Forces during the present war. 



