SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 105 
Instantly, responses came hurrying in from every direction. 
Boxes of valuable specimens, fully labeled, came from Maine, 
from Oregon, southern California, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, 
and nearly a score of other states. In a month the office of the 
Zoological Society looked like an ornithological clearing house. 
The total number of donors was 41, and the total number of 
mounted birds, bird skins, and other specimens exceeded seven 
hundred! The donors were really glad of an opportunity to 
place in the empty hands of the children of lower New York a few 
of the leaves of the great book of Nature which ‘circumstances 
had so generously opened to them. It was the ‘‘ one touch of 
Nature’’ which ‘‘ makes the whole world kin.”’ 
If all the people of this country were assembled, and a rising 
vote taken on the question—Are our birds and mammals worth 
preserving ? we believe nearly every man, woman and child would 
stand up to be counted. Even the worst destroyers believe in 
limiting the destructiveness of others! ‘Thanks to the extent of 
our ‘territory, and the diversity of its physical aspect, our mam- 
malian and avian faunas are still exceedingly rich and varied, 
as well as interesting and valuable. With the exception of a few 
noxious species, our wild creatures are well worth preserving, 
and their further annihilation would be nothing less than a 
national disgrace. And even though we of to-day should feel lit- 
tle interest in the preservation of the animal life indigenous to 
North America, it must be remembered that we owe a duty to suc- 
ceeding generations, and we have no right to rob those who come 
after us of the wealth of living forms that Nature has so lav- 
ishly bestowed upon this continent, and maintained in great 
abundance until fifteen years ago. The zoological estate now in 
our possession is not ours in fee simple, dut by inheritance under 
entatl; and it must be transmitted to those who come after us, 
in a good state of preservation. 
Beyond all possibility of dispute, the time has now arrived 
when it is the duty of all American zoologists, a]l our Academies 
of Science, zoological societies and museums, and all our higher 
institutions of learning, to unite and become actively and aggres- 
sively interested in comprehensive measures for protection. In 
co-operation with the Audubon Society of the State of New 
York, the American Museum of Natural History, through its 
President and through Dr. J. A. Allen and Mr. Frank M. Chap- 
