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people who have spare time don't trouble themselves at all about the 

 birds. Some of you may say this is a good thing, for by it, you may 

 think, many a bird with its nest and eggs is left unmolested. But 

 this is not exactly the result of my experience. I hear of nests being 

 torn down and the eggs trampled on, or the young destroyed. I hear 

 of birds being shot at all seasons for no earthly purpose whatever. In 

 short, I notice a great scarcity of birds in the part of Ontario where I 

 live, and am told they are yearly diminishing. The prejudice, if 1 may 

 call it such, to ornithology, and ornithologists is this : — People think it 

 is a cruel study, or a useless one. Certainly a practical ornithologist 

 must be prejiared to endure the charge of cruelty. But think of the 

 many, more esi:)ecially in Britain, who love the subject for its surround- 

 ings, and who while taking part in it, scarcely ever sacrifice a feathered 

 life. In days now passed, when I devoted a considerable amount of 

 ray spare time to this study, I may say I never destroyed a bird for 

 the purpose of identification, and there are very few British land birds 

 that I cannot identify. I have made myself familiar too, with many 

 of the local Canadian birds, and all this without destruction of life. 

 My method, and the methods of others like myself, is to provide, a pair 

 of strong field glasses ; these assisted by a fondness for the pursuit, and 

 a little reading, will generally accomplish the object, and make an 

 amateur fairly proficient. I do not say I have never taken a bird's 

 egg, perhaps I have taken too many, for in my time I have collected 

 nearly 200 varieties of British eggs, and have added a few in Canada. 

 Some lady my say : " How can you, who pretend to love the birds, boast 

 of having destroyed in a sense the germ of life of so many ; you whose 

 function it is to protect rather than to destroy 1 " Yet to such a one I 

 reply, that it is this very love which makes a naturalist and a collector 

 sometimes cruel. To have reminders of former scenes, to look at some 

 cherished specimen that in after years brings back to the mind's eye 

 the sense of some former effort, some trial of strength, some anxious 

 moment, the companionship of some dear friend, the thrill of excite- 

 ment, the hardly earned trophy. There is no truer pleasure to a 

 genuine lover of nature than that of watching the habits of birds in 

 their free, wild state. I can scarcely say I approve of amateurs shoot- 

 ing the birds. I have been told by such that it is with feelings of 



