4-3 



THE OOLOGiST. 



any time. During the long winter ev- 

 enings when there is nothing else Orni- 

 thological to do, it is pleasant and pro- 

 fitable to sit down and read ovei*. and 

 post, and muse, and theorize. Then is 

 the time that an Ornithologist does his 

 real work. During the collecting sea- 

 son he is only getting data upon which 

 to think and work over at his leisure. 



A third volume could very well be 

 added. If one is anything of a draughts- 

 man he can use it for drawings of spec- 

 ial resemblances, abnormalities, etc. 

 Or to keep tabulated the results of dis- 

 section for food, time of migrations and 

 incubation period. In fact, a whole 

 host of statistics could be accumulated 

 here which would be of great value. 



In this way I think everything can be 

 put down in a manner that one might 

 call "getable. "It makes matters easier to 

 use along with the second-volume a good 

 li6t of the locality in which you work. 

 I use Cook's List of the Birds of Michi- 

 gan. It would be a tedious thing to sit 

 down and write cut the headings for 

 each species at one time so I only write 

 them as I need them. To do this so as 

 to keep the classification right I use the 

 list. My note book contains two hun- 

 dred pages. The list mentions three 

 hundred and thirty-six species. So I 

 allow half a page for each bird. Each 

 species in the list is numbered as it is 

 mentioned, so I have only to halve that 

 number to find the place it goes in the 

 book. Thus— I wantto put in the head- 

 ing for the Pine Grosbeak. It is the 

 two hundred and nineteenth bird listed. 

 One-half of this is one hundred nine 

 and a half. So it goes on the lower 

 half of page one hundred and nine. 

 Again, wishing to insert the Hoary 

 Redpoll which is not mentioned in the 

 list, I put a note 0.1 the margin of 

 the page where it should go if there 

 were room, and place it over in the 

 back of the book. 



Many people say all this is a lot of 

 bother, but to one fond of the work it is 



not so. If he doesn't care enough for 

 Ornithology to devote half an hour now 

 and again to his note book, he had bet- 

 ter drop it. 



The above system is the one i work. 

 It fulfils my requirements better than 

 any other method I have thus far seen. 

 If anyone else has a better one I should 

 like to hear from him. 



P. A. Tavernier, 

 Guelph, Ont. 



The Passing of Species. 



At no time in our histoi-y has activity 

 been greater in the ranks of oological 

 collectors. In the West, at least, in my 

 boyhood il seems as though the making 

 of egg collections was mostly confined 

 to very young lads who conceived no 

 better method of pi-eserving their spec- 

 imens than end-blowing or stringing 

 on a . thread. From such small begin- 

 nings have grown the myriad collec- 

 tions, both great and small, in the 

 hands not only of boys but of grave 

 men and women and museums all over 

 the country. It is -no purpose of this 

 paper to decry this pursuit. Its wis- 

 dom and its worthiness will doubtless 

 always be open to question in the 

 minds of those who are not of our num- 

 ber. As for ourselves it is safe to pre- 

 dict that the gathering process will go 

 on so long as bird life shall exist. 



And if the gathering of sets andseries 

 of sets was the only inroad upon the 

 great annual renewal of supply it might 

 be confidently expected that the dev- 

 otees of many generations hence 

 would be able to marshall as extensive 

 collections as our own. But a multi- 

 tude of hostile influences combine to 

 rapidly deplete the supply. 



It is not necessary to enumerate them 

 here. They have been repeatedly dis- 

 cussed and deplored. But we are face 

 to face with the fact that many com- 

 mon species of our boyhood are now 



