190 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



structure and other peculiarities of hundreds of species would re- 

 main forever iftiheard and undescribed by man. 



Even the destruction of birds by the much execrated small 

 bad boy with a cheap shotgun is not without its mitigating features. 

 For example, Spencer F. Baird, the present head of the Smithsonian 

 Institute and U. S. National Museum, was, in Audubon's time, 

 one of these "small boys" possibly as wicked-appearing as any. 

 And even of the illustrious Audubon himself, we read, in his boy- 

 hood days, that •' supplied with a haversack of provisions, he 

 made frequent excursions into the country, and usually returned 

 loaded with objects of natural history, birds' nests, birds' eggs," 

 and so on. Now, it is not to be supposed that all amateur boy 

 ornithologists will develop into Audubons, Bairds or Aliens or 

 Coues or Ridgways and yet no one who considers the subject in its 

 broader bearings can ignore the fact that the concentrating of the 

 mind upon so attractive and instructive a subject as the study of 

 birds, must have, in the long run, an elevating and refining ten- 

 dency ; and in any event boys might be in much worse mischief, 

 both bodily and mentally. 



We may dismiss the small boy then, with the remark that he 

 has as much right to the gratification of his developing taste for 

 ornithology as the more pretentious collector who may have the 

 means and inclination to employ a dozen or two small boys in the 

 interest of his collection. 



As regards the purely humanitarian view of the subject, if we 

 are going to condemn the wearers, or collectors of birds on the 

 ground of discouraging "cruelty to animals," we must also, to be 

 consistent, oppose the scaldi/ig alive of myriads of embryo winged 

 creatures, in order that humanity may wear silks and ribbons, and 

 object to sealskin garments, because the poor, innocent animals are 

 butchered by thousands on Alaskan Islands with no chance for re- 

 sistance or escape. 



But our subject is too large and our space too limited to per- 

 nlit us to even touch upon all its bearings. 



Now, ladies and gentlemen, I would not have you suppose, 

 for a moment, that I am an enemy to our birds ; on the contrary, 

 some of the pleasantest hours of my life have been spent in their 

 company. 



Neither do I believe in the extravagant statement (juoted by 



one member of your committee, that the "United States are going 



raight to the desert condition of a country without song-birds." 



