xii 
were numbered ; by recognising on the British List their 
numbers, as Birds shall stand upon the World’s list, the 
above difficulty would be obviated; and the American 
accommodation enjoyed by the British Collector of Birds, 
or their Eggs. 
The word Co/lector brings me to a matter on which 
I would venture a few words, which to me seem reason- 
able. 
Mr. Seebohm divides Ornithologists into four classes; 
of which the first alone is zdea/; he who studies Orni- 
thology from all the four several points of views of the 
Anatomist; the Student in the Museum of stuffed birds ; 
the Literary Man; and the Field Naturalist. 
It is not Mr. Seebohm who condemns either of these 
as superficially trivial: but I have seen it brought for- 
ward, in an American publication, that all credit should 
be reserved for those alone who, by following the birds 
into their haunts, enjoy scenery, and gain health. This 
judgement, probably from one whose speciality it is to do 
this, shuts out all who have not time, or opportunity, or 
health, or even youth, even the man who when young, and 
able, followed, as did Wolley, and Seebohm, the birds 
from latitude to latitude, through difficulty, and danger, 
to their extremest northern summer haunts; he also when 
old and unable becomes, per force, the mere collector, 
and library naturalist. According to this, enthusiasm for 
so charming a pursuit does not exceed the height which 
the Kentish school boy attains when he goes a trespassing 
after the eggs of the Goatsucker, in the Archbishop’s 
park, for is not he also a genuine field naturalist in 
embryo, with, as yet, ambition only to fill the string on 
which he hangs his treasures; but which may hereafter 
carry him to the Antarctic pole. 
A collection of bird’s eggs! At first blush there is 
