6 The Study of Wild Birds 
in their haunts and further, how this pleasure can be gratified to 
the full without taking the eggs or young or slaughtering the parent 
birds. 
A favourite excuse with students for taking bird-life or robbing 
a nest is the natural and reasonable desire to verify some point 
about which they are in doubt. In these cases as in most others, 
every man is the best judge of his own motives and innumerable 
cases may and do occur when such conduct is thoroughly justifiable. 
But I would plead for the birds that whenever possible they should 
be given the benefit of the doubt. The longer one lives the more 
one realizes how seldom it is necessary to destroy life. I can recall 
a case over twenty-five years ago when [| found a small nest in 
some rank grass and brambles. It was clearly either that of the 
Willow Warbler or of the Chiff-chaff. To watch the bird and 
identify it as it re-entered its nest was impossible owing to its 
snake-like habits. To kill it was simple enough. The third way 
was to make a horsehair noose and adjust the loop over the 
entrance to the nest. In five minutes I had the bird fluttering 
in my hand, an undoubted Willow Warbler; next moment it was 
released. Where a species abounds and time presses, it may of 
course be reasonable to kill the old bird but this should be ever 
viewed as the last resource. 
But I must explicitly disclaim any pretensions to merely being 
a bird-watcher, one who never molests a nest. I have robbed many 
nests, possibly those of more species than most people in pro- 
portion to the countries I have visited. But I have found most of 
them myself and taken nearly all of them with my own hands. 
The limits imposed by endeavouring to adhere to these two rules 
are much narrower than most people would imagine. In the few 
cases where | have departed from them it has been owing to 
pressure of time or the impossibility of my being in the district 
at the season when the eggs are laid. Take for example several 
