232 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1050 



some instances behaved indifferently toward 

 people who are sensitive to bird killing. This 

 lack of sympathy on the part of the collector 

 may be one factor that has brought him into 

 disrepute. It is to be deplored. To control 

 the thoughtless among collectors it is feasible 

 to devise and enforce regulations, such as one 

 to establish say a three-mile limit around all 

 cities and even villages of a given minimum 

 size. By similar action already taken in some 

 states hunting is prohibited within specified 

 distances of "public grounds." A system of 

 local refuges and parks, where shooting for 

 any purpose whatever would be prohibited, 

 would certainly be approved by most collectors 

 and would go far toward meeting the wishes 

 of other lovers of living birds. 



It should not be forgotten that the collect- 

 ing ornithologist has furnished the bulk of the 

 reliable data upon which our game laws are 

 based, and upon which the economic value of 

 our non-game birds has been established. 

 Furthermore, the training involved in bird 

 collecting can surely be given some credit in 

 several cases of eminent men of science who 

 are now valuable contributors to science in 

 other fields. The making of natural-history 

 collections is useful as a developmental factor, 

 even if dropped after a few of the earlier years 

 in a man's career. Collecting develops scien- 

 tific capacity; it combines outdoor physical 

 exercise with an appropriate proportion of 

 mental effort, both enlivened with the zest of 

 a most fascinating and at the same time 

 widely suggestive line of enquiry. 



As a rule, all collecting adds sooner or later 

 to scientific knowledge, either directly through 

 printed contributions from the collectors 

 themselves, or through the subsequent study 

 of the material by others, often after it has 

 been acquired by some public institution. The 

 ultimate fate of practically all private collec- 

 tions is the college or museum. Very few 

 bird skins, for instance, are destroyed except 

 through fire or other catastrophe. They live 

 on and on, sources of added knowledge and 

 instruction. 



In conclusion let me urge that I consider 

 judicious collecting absolutely indispensable 



to serious ornithological research along certain 

 important lines, namely, faunistics, syste- 

 matics, migration, and food studies. There is 

 still an enormous amount of investigation to 

 be done along these lines. Right now prog- 

 ress is perceptibly retarded, because the field 

 of ornithology is being avoided or deserted by 

 the younger students. This desertion is often 

 due to difficulties in the way of securing per- 

 mits and to lack of encouragement on the part 

 of older men. The legal attitude toward col- 

 lecting should be revised so as to take in the 

 needs and proper demands of the collector, aa 

 well as those of the sportsman. 



Joseph Grinnell 

 Museum of Vbktebrate Zoology, 

 Universitt of California 



TEE SCIENTIFIC TREND IN SECONDARY 

 SCHOOLS 

 A MISCONCEPTION regarding the trend in 

 secondary education seems to have been in- 

 corporated in recent educational opinion. 

 From the first citation'- below, there is quoted 

 the following (p. 80) referring to Mr. Fisher's 

 article.^ 



We note, therefore, the phenomenon of a decline 

 in the ratio of students who elect science. 



There can be no doubt that there has been 

 a decline in the percentage of students elect- 

 ing physics, chemistry, physiography and 

 physiology, as Mr. Fisher's graph shows, but 

 that we are to conclude from these data that 

 there is a decline in the sciences and an in- 

 crease in the humanities is not so certain. It 

 is quite possible that this decline in the en- 

 rolment in these subjects is explained by the 

 shift of students with scientific interests to 

 other subjects like botany, agriculture, do- 

 mestic science, et cetera. Or it is conceivable 

 that while the enrolment may decline, the 

 length of time devoted to each subject is so in- 



1 Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 

 1913, Chap, v., "The Status of Secondary Edu- 

 cation. ' ' 



2 "The Drift in Secondary Education," Willard 

 J. Fisher, Science, November 1, 1912, N. S., Vol. 

 XXXVI., No. 931. 



