§48 KEroKJh ON THE 8TATE OK SCIENCE. 



( In these days of books and accurate descriptions and faithful illustrations 

 other pursuits can be studied without having actual specimens ; for instance, it 

 is possible for any real student to study the Maoris, or certain tribes in Central 

 Africa, without requiring their mummies in the house. In the same way a man 

 can study the heavenly bodies, the Pyramids, the Pacific tides, without inverting 

 a well-known line, ' hitching a star to your chariot.' 



Pick up a journal devoted to such subjects, and j'ou will there read censure 

 of the professional bird-catcher, who makes a living out of his pursuit, and the 

 woman who has the wings of Avild, and sometimes rare, birds in her hat. I 

 have not one word to say in defence of either; but what I do object to is the so- 

 called scientific person who is not only collecting but advertising every rare 

 bird. To me it seems absurd for one class to cast stones at the other ; if anything 

 the latter is the worse, for because he loves birds he must kill ; he also some- 

 times shoots, wounds, but cannot get the bird, and it is left to die a painful 

 death. 



Take the case of Pallas' Sand Grouse ; that bird has come before now from 

 its home in Tavtary, and been shot. Now attention is being called to its re- 

 appearance, and only the so-called scientific man will recognise it and appro- 

 priate it. 



The following I copy from one of our local papers for August 8 : — 



' At a recent meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club there was exhibited 

 a species of bunting new to Britain. It was shot on Komney Marsh on March 26 

 of the present year, and is the species known as the Large-billed Reed Bunting 

 {Embenza lyyrrhuloides palustiis). It is a common species in Southern Spain 

 and Italy. The usual fate of such stragglers is to be shot by enthusiastic 

 ornithologists, which seems a pity, as otherwise they might possibly stay and 

 breed. And it is probable that it is sometimes by such Avanderers that the range 

 of a species is extended.' 



Have we made up our minds that we want no new birds added to our lists ? 

 Are we determined that a bird like this shall not breed on our shores ? Is the 

 method now pursued an advantage to .science '■^ Let us be frank and answer, 

 ' No.' If we could even preserve the rarer migrants from slaughter we would 

 still have the egg collector, who is quite as destructive as the man with the gun. 



For myself, while admiring the art of the taxidermist, I get no pleasure from a 

 glass case of stufl'ed birds; one is told that such find their way eventually to 

 museums. I venture to say that our curators often resent such methods of 

 dumping indifl'erent property, which occupies much wanted space. 



Museums are the only places justified in having collections of once living 

 things, and at the present rate of activity a time will come when they will be 

 stocked with only what is necessary for the pursuit of knowledge. 



In the matter of our native birds it is bird-u-ntc/iinff that is of value. 



Complaints are heard of hedgerows in the vicinity of our cities being denuded 

 of our common ferns, but the genuine botanist, who meanwhile is scouring the 

 country for the rarer sorts, is the first to cry out against the poor town-dweller 

 who has no scrap of garden and few opportunities of seeing the country. 



Further, what about those Societies which give a list of every rare plant, i&c, 

 on the programme of an excursion, and sometimes ofler a prize for the largest 

 collection of wild flowers gathered ^ It is said that no roots are taken, or 

 rai-ely; but even so, the more precious the find the greater the loss of the 

 seed. 



Let us, if we have any love for science and the life about us, go back to our 

 respective societies and do some little thing to stay the vast destruction going 

 on around. 



Mr. Wilfrid Mark Webb (Selborne Society) alluded to the nineteen acres of 

 woodland near London preserved by the Brent Valley and Eichraond branch 

 of the Selborne Society as a bird sanctuary. He also expressed his opinion as to 

 the value and necessity of collections, but only when used for truly scientific 

 purposes. 



