184 NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



To every person who loves to study in the great field of Nature; to 

 those especially who are deeply interested in the habits of the feathered 

 tribe, the protection of bird life is of the utmost innportance. 



Surely none of the readers of the foregoing pages are engaged in the 

 wholesale collecting of eggs for purely mercenary purposes, sacrificing and 

 depopulating our birds, and screening their fiendish acts under the gauzy 

 lace of science. 



No thoughtful and honorable natural history dealer will uphold you in 

 the utter destruction of whole rookeries and communities of birds, and 

 there is no need for it in making a study of their habits, and adding a few 

 specimens to a private cabinet. The true lover of the study of Oology 

 will do everything in his power to promote the interests of the birds, so 

 that their varied domestic affairs will annually add valuable notes to his 

 ever-open note-book. 





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