for Love of Science.



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collection of butterflies and moths : fortunately for aviculture these

insects were unusually scarce, and so I turned my attention to

collecting eggs. When I got home I naturally wished to name

my specimens, and therefore procured Hewitson’s British Birds-eggs,

but found his plates almost entirely useless for the purpose, because

he only gave one or perhaps two illustrations of each kind of egg.

This fact determined me to produce a work which would give some

idea of the variations existing in the commoner eggs, and to this

end I not only collected long series of eggs, but also of nests of as

many species as possible. The result was first 11 A Handbook of

British Oology ” illustrated by myself, and later “ Bird’s Eggs of

the British Isles” illustrated by Erohawk.


Now, whatever opinion may be held by scientists respecting

the value of the above two books as a help to the study of Oology ;

the fact cannot be disputed that they have conclusively proved

the enormous variability to which eggs are subject, and therefore

have added to the sum of human knowledge ; yet had the penalties

for taking birds’ eggs existed when I was still young, neither of

those books would ever have seen the light.


But, supposing that books produced by me were entirely

valueless, it by no means follows that other young men who made

collections would also fail to do good work, as a result of their

studies in bird-life ; yet now, if they would seek out Nature’s secrets,

the poseur of humanitarianism brands them as criminals ! and,

having persuaded the law of the land to back him up, prosecutes

these lovers of Nature without mercy.


Collecting birds’ eggs led me naturally on to rearing young

birds from the nest, and thus bred within me an affection for my

younger feathered brothers, which has certainly not been injurious

to my avicultural friends and has been admitted to be not entirely

useless to Science. Now all this seems egotistical at first sight, but

it must be born in mind that if an ordinary lover of Science, after

taking up the study of any branch of animal life, can produce work

of any value whatever; a law which would throw obstacles in the

way of a budding Darwin or Huxley would be wicked in the extreme.


No end of silly and grossly ignorant twaddle has been

written respecting the cruelty of taking birds’ eggs ; but, as a matter



