137 



THE OOLOQiST 



five full volumes and sit down at our 

 desk with pencil and tablet, and figure 

 up the number of eggs owned by the 

 Museum, we opine, that by so doing 

 they would arrive shortly at the con- 

 clusion that those connected with the 

 British Museum living in a hous3 

 covered by so much glass of this kind, 

 to say the least should be the very 

 last ones to commence throwing 

 stones. The few thousand eggs in 

 the Museum of Comparative Oology, 

 and the accumulations that are likely 

 to be received by it, will not justify 

 criticism, from the British Museum, 

 with its vast accumulations of thous- 

 ands upon thousands of specimens cf 

 this class of scientific material. 



Again if the Trustee of The British 

 Museum could go through The Museum 

 Museum could go through the Mu- 

 seum of Comparative Oology, as 

 we did, and see and realize the 

 splendid equipment and infinite 

 care bestowed upon the specimens 

 there, and their present state of per- 

 fection and preservation, and compare 

 the same with the neglected and un- 

 sightly slipshod manner in which 

 oological specimens of the British 

 Museum are treated, we are reason- 

 ably sure that Brother Pycroft, would 

 receive a more or less gentle sugges- 

 tion from sources in authority to give 

 more attention to the specimens under 

 the care of that great institution, and 

 spend less time carping, growling at 

 and criticizing a younger and smaller 

 institution that has fairly won its 

 place in the Sun of public confidence 

 and usefulness though it be smaller 

 than that great mother of all museums. 



There are people, however, of small 

 caliber connected in more or less sub- 

 ordinate capacities with all great in- 

 stitutions who seem to imagine that 

 they have grown big and because of 

 such connection with such institution 



they are thereby authoriztd to direct 

 human affairs, of which they know 

 little or nothing, even as far away as 

 the other side of the globe. It may be 

 that this gentleman who is so fi'ee in 

 his criticism and so ready to attack 

 that which he has never seen and of 

 which it is clearly evident that he has 

 little or no reliable information, be- 

 longs to this class. — R. M. B. 



RESULTS 



Paul G. Howes 



It is gratifying that the birds ar3 

 coming back; that civilization is not 

 to exterminate them all, and that the 

 widespread and general sympathy for 

 real rigid bird protection is bringing 

 great results that are truly great in 

 every sense of the word. Witness 

 this: A few years ago, it would have 

 been impossible to find Black-crowned 

 Night Herons meeting anywhere near 

 Stamford where I live. My house 

 stands less than three hundred yards 

 from the water of Long Island Sound 

 with a clear view of all its beauties. 

 At low tide three years ago an oc- 

 casional Heron of the species in ques- 

 tion fiew in for the purpose of feeding, 

 but they were scarce at best. Since 

 that time they have increased very re- 

 markably until they now are common 

 birds, as of yore. Several stayed all 

 winter last year, owing to the mild 

 season and the culmination came dur- 

 ing the spring of 1921, when I found 

 a breeding colony, a real old time rook 



