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Correspondence.



something more than a playground for the collector, and who hold, and unjustly

hold, that genuine scientific research has never yet demanded the extinction of a

single species, regard the collector with the bitterest feelings of distrust.


With such standing examples of his work, is it wonderful that the dog

gets a bad name, that the very word collector has become a byword for merciless

and wanton destruction, and that the public have some difficulty in discrimina¬

ting between the genuine student of Natural History who is honestly trying to

work out some problem, and the egg-snatcliing, bird-mongering hypocrite who

talks of a Love of Science ?


Who can wonder that those who derive perhaps the keenest enjoyment in

life from association with the wild birds of this country, and who are often far

better naturalists than some collectors who possess large museums crammed

with dry skins and empty egg shells, sometimes overstep the limits of moderation

in their frantic desire to prevent any more species being reduced to that degree

of rarity at which they become the special subjects of the greed of the collector.

They know only too well, that for every collection of eggs made with the object

of making any serious contribution to the study of Oology, there are scores

which have no object at all, unless the accumulation of an indefinite number of

clutches of some rare birds eggs, of which the proud possessor can boast that

“ he has taken them all himself in the British Isles ” can be called an object.


They know too, from bitter experience, that there is a type of egg collector

whose greed for eggs has so far got the better of his sense of honour that he does

not scruple to abuse the hospitality of landowners when granted leave to “ come

and see the birds breeding on the ground,” nor hesitate to attempt to induce his

employees to break faith with their master by offering large bribes to them for

allowing eggs to be removed, which he knows full well are the special object of

his host’s protection.


It may be too much to hope that in the near future the protection of wild

birds should be entrusted to a central committee—not of politicians—but of

ornithological experts, empowered to grant licence to properly accredited persons

to obtain the necessary specimens for genuine study, and who would be in a

position to discriminate in the choice of individuals to whom such license was

granted. Surely it is not too much to hope that a step in the right direction

should be made, and that certain Ornithological Associations should show in a

rather more rigorous fashion their disapproval of acts of useless destruction, and

their determination to exclude from membership such as are guilty of them.


It is only too common to hear members of such associations condemning,

in private, in the bitterest language, the performances of fellow members, while,

when the opportunity occurs of expressing their disapproval in public, fear of

unpopularity leads them to remain in silence. WILLIAM PERCY.



