400 THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF BIRDS chap. 



The gun must play an important part in ornithology 

 till the world is far more depopulated of birds than 

 it is at present, though no reasonable ornithologist 

 will shoot a bird of a species that can with difficulty 

 maintain itself and is in danger of extinction. More- 

 over, rarity does not in itself add to the interest of 

 a bird. Great Auks, when plentiful, were just as 

 interesting as at the present day when there are only 

 a few dead specimens in museums. When shooting, 

 you learn things that are not likely to come to your 

 notice otherwise. You see how vigorous a bird is 

 after his wing is broken ; a Cormorant, thus wounded, 

 will dive and swim with undiminished activity. If 

 you swim after a bird you think you have hopelessly 

 crippled, he may lead you a terrible dance. There 

 is no truth in the notion that a wounded bird never 

 recovers. Brehm 1 says that he has often shot birds 

 whose wing bones had evidently been previously 

 shattered by a gunshot. You cannot help, while 

 shooting, picking up a great deal of miscellaneous 

 information as to the favourite haunts of particular 

 species, their feeding times, their comparative shyness, 

 their flight, their various notes, and many other 

 things. 



Every ornithologist, who can, should travel. Even 

 if birds on their migration come to us, there is no 

 reason why we should not travel in search of them. 

 Those who have seen the nests of our Geese, Gray 

 Plovers, Little Stints, Sanderlings, and Knots in the 

 far north, are much to be envied. And the tropical 



1 See Bird Life, by Dr. A. E. Brehm, English translation, 

 p. 89. 



