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be killed if they remain, and advise their companions to go where 

 they will be better received ; they were probably as likely to 

 have remained at Heligoland as with us. Professor Gatke, in 

 his letter, does not wish any of your readers to suppose that the 

 birds which he enumerates as having been met with, if they had 

 not been killed, would either have remained to breed, or have 

 returned the next season; they appear there by accident, the 

 individuals having missed their regular migratory course. I 

 for one am glad that they have been met with, and that notice 

 of their having been found has been given as he has given it. 

 It is oftentimes very difficult indeed to make out the sex of birds, 

 even after careful examination; and any information on that 

 subject got from an ordinary bird-stuffer should be received with 

 caution. "We hear much more about the destruction of birds at 

 the present time than there is occasion for. No one regrets more 

 than I do their being killed for no purpose ; but to try to dis- 

 courage young men from the pleasure of blending the sport of 

 shooting and the study of Natural History together, is to deprive 

 them of a most useful and amusing occupation. Much informa- 

 tion would be gained if more of them would follow such a plea- 

 sant pursuit as Ornithology, and in which so much has yet to be 

 learnt ; and the time they would devote to it might be very much 

 worse spent. Not only so, but I maintain that all things in 

 nature were given to us to study and admire, and that there is 

 no harm in destroying animals for the purpose of studying nature 

 in all its branches, notwithstanding opposite views are taken by 

 so many persons. Surely the most miserably-stuffed bird in a 

 poor man's house, if he chooses to have it, is as useful as a bird 

 shot by a rich man for the purpose of being eaten ; or one of those 

 which are commonly called vermin, killed, and nailed against a 

 wall. 



I cannot believe that any amount of protection will induce birds 

 to breed regularly in this Island which only occasionally visit 

 us, and which are not accustomed to breed here. I saw this 

 spring a notice of a Hoopoe having been shot, which on exami- 

 nation showed that it was a breeding bird. At the time I re- 

 gretted that your correspondent did not show beyond a doubt 



