148 Alexander Goodman More. [i860 



Among the books and pamphlets sent him for review 

 was Mr. Newton's " Hints towards forming Collections of 

 Eggs," published early in 1861. " So I am to be your 

 trumpeter/' he writes. " Hurrah ! One good turn 

 deserves another; and won't my four dear birds be 

 avenged, and won't I announce your essay as ' a great 

 improvement on the average run of cookery books ! ' and 

 won't I show you up about those 20,000 eggs of the Wax- 

 wing, which you so naively acknowledge to." (The 

 " four dear birds " not two pairs of trapped Peregrines 

 were the Golden Eagle, Crested Titmouse, Great Black 

 Woodpecker, and " Northern Puffin/' which an " ' Ibis ' 

 reviewer " considered to have been admitted on hardly 

 sufficient evidence into his Natural History of the Isle of 

 Wight.) In a letter of February 2oth, 1861, he refers to 

 this review, which appeared in the " Annals": 



I have corrected the proof to-day. I trust you will like it ; and you 

 must not be angry with me for crying ' ' pray spare the poor British birds ' ' ; 

 and mind you are not included among the reckless egg-collectors, nor 

 are you one of the ignoble hoarders, of whom I have found several, 

 utterly ignorant of the birds whose eggs they are so anxious to possess. 

 Ah, you knew I could not suppress my prejudice entirely,* but what is 

 said I trust is done gently enough. ... I was so much amused at 

 reading over the notice of your pamphlet in the "Ibis," and which I 

 am inclined to attribute to Tristram. 1 read it through last night, and 

 again to-day compared it with my own. I notice he has not omitted 

 the caution of " spare the parent as far as possible "; and the whole 

 article shows the hand of an adept. My notice looks like the work of 



* The reference is to a passage in which, having quoted his author to the 

 effect that " the most satisfactory, and often the simplest, way of identifying the 

 species to which the nest belongs is to obtain one of the parents by shooting, 

 snaring, or trapping," &c., he comments as follows: 



" We implore our readers not to attempt to carry out this practice upon our 

 British nesting birds. Many things are necessary and justifiable in an unexplored 

 country, and when the egg has not yet been traced to its proper parent ; but eggs 

 found in Great Britain are mostly too well known to require such measures as 

 this, though exception may very justly be made in the case of a bird not pre- 

 viously known to nest in Britain if it cannot be identified by any other means. 

 Sad havoc has already been made among our scarcest species by reckless egg- 

 collectors. Let us hope that a better spirit now prevails. A knowledge of the 

 birds themselves and of their habits is surely far preferable to a collection of 

 their eggs ; and we have noticed that those who are most zealous in furnishing 

 their egg-cabinets are not always the best field-ornithologists. Of course we do 

 not blame those who collect eggs with a really scientific object." 



