Febktjakt 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



231 



the same time acquiring added information, 

 and installs it under safe conditions as an 

 object of study and appreciation for all time. 

 Instead of being merely eaten, it becomes a 

 joy forever. 



To my mind, there is no more practical rea- 

 son for shooting a snipe for sport than for 

 shooting a Savannah sparrow for a specimen. 



My thesis is, not that hunting game for 

 sport is unjustifiable, but that hunting both 

 non-game and game birds and mammals for 

 specimens is at least equally justifiable. The 

 state and federal warden system should be re- 

 vised so that the collector and the sportsman 

 shall be treated on the same basis. That is 

 all I am pleading for. The laws and those 

 officers whose duty it is to interpret and en- 

 force them should allow collecting and regu- 

 late it, just as is done in the case of hunting. 

 Those in high official position should recog- 

 nize the claims of the private collector as well 

 as the claims of the sportsman. We are re- 

 sponsible one to another for looking after each 

 other's interests. Those at the top should 

 have a care for the privileges of their minority 

 constituency, wherever such privileges be not 

 in serious conflict with the interests of the 

 majority. 



A further instance of inconsistency is to be 

 noted in the intemperance with which the 

 reservation idea has been put into effect within 

 the last few years. The whole scheme of game 

 refuges, and the reservation of restricted areas 

 for safe breeding grounds for birds, is a splen- 

 did one. Its adoption on a large scale is a 

 thing worthy of the deepest satisfaction on 

 the part of naturalists, economists and senti- 

 mentalists alike. But hasn't it gone beyond 

 all reason when the Aleutian chain of islands 

 is closed absolutely to the collector; when St. 

 Lazaria Island, southeastern Alaska, which to 

 my knowledge has been visited by collectors 

 just three times in twenty years, is suddenly 

 declared a bird reservation and the regulations 

 so fixed as to completely bar the taking of 

 birds or birds' eggs for bona fide scientific 

 purposes ! It seems to me vastly more reason- 

 able, economically, to put colonies of sea-birds 

 under warden control, and at the same time to 



give the warden power of allowing moderate 

 collecting and to see that such levy on the 

 population is kept within the rate of produc- 

 tivity of the colony. It is exactly the same 

 proposition as the gathering of mature timber 

 from the forest reserve, or the shooting of 

 moose and deer within certain safe numbers 

 annually in Maine. A sea-bird colony, such 

 as that on the Farallone Islands, would not 

 suffer in the least if certain numbers of birds 

 or eggs were gathered each year, totaling per- 

 haps hundreds, just so these numbers were 

 within the annual rate of increase. Such a 

 course is absolutely the opposite of unlimited 

 destruction, such as that waged by the plume- 

 hunter. The latter violates the principles of 

 conservation, which all men of science join 

 with vigor in upholding. 



Reasonable attention to several other fac- 

 tors, well known to collecting ornithologists, 

 would far more than compensate for the toll 

 taken by collectors. For instance, on the 

 Farallone Islands the colonies of gulls are on 

 the increase; the murres and cormorants are 

 on the decrease, in spite of total protection, 

 because of the piracy of the gulls. Many of 

 the other birds on those islands would profit 

 to a far greater degree if a considerable pro- 

 portion of the gull population were eliminated. 

 And this could be done easily through appro- 

 priate efforts on the part of a game warden at 

 the beginning of the nesting season. 



Collectors themselves probably fully com- 

 pensate for the number of birds they destroy 

 for specimens, in the incidental destruction 

 by them of vermin. Collectors are practically 

 the only people who can and do distinguish 

 between the destructive and harmless hawks. 

 The average collector can and does on all 

 occasions destroy Cooper and Sharp-shinned 

 Hawks, and in this way certainly makes up 

 several times over for the small birds he 

 shoots. Suggestive estimates could here be 

 given as to the annual destruction wrought 

 among both game and non-game birds by the 

 few injurious species of hawks and owls. 

 The predaceous blue-jays also receive the col- 

 lector's attention. 



It is true that collectors in the past have in 



