IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



birds and eg^gs. Then we find a 

 sub-class, those who are always 

 collecting and have not time to 

 study just then, but expect to do 

 that after awhile. Why it is that 

 these persons collect so many 

 birds and eggs of the same spe- 

 cies is a mystery. One complains 

 about his hard luck, saying he 

 got only one hundred eggs all 

 day, one brags about taking one 

 hundred and seventy-five eggs of 

 a rare bird; another boasts about 

 "scooping" as he called it, one 

 hundred and twenty dozen in one 

 day. What is the object of this 

 wholesale destruction ? 



If it were permissible for me 

 to criticize so eminent a natural- 

 ist as Dr. Coues, I would say I 

 do not agree with him. He says 

 in his "Key," '/How many 

 birds of the same kind do you 

 want .' All you can get. At least 

 from fifty to one hundred, and 

 more of the commoner varieties." 

 That is all right for colleges and 

 museums, where there are many 

 persons to examine the specimens, 

 but not for the private collector. 

 I am afraid that the worthy gen- 

 tleman himself would soon ob- 

 ject if each of the several thou- 

 sand collectors in the United 

 States would follow his advice. 

 It is difficult to see how he ex- 

 pects to advance science so much 



more by his one hundred stuffed 

 birds than by the student who 

 goes out and takes notes from 

 life. I will quote from Emerson, 

 "The bird is not in its ounces and 

 inches, but in its relation to 

 nature, and the skin or skeleton 

 you show me is no more a heron, 

 than a heap of ashes or a bottle 

 of gases into which his body has 

 been reduced, is Dante or Wash- 

 ington." We cannot tell about 

 the character or habits of a per- 

 son by examining his body after 

 he is dead and embalmed, yet it 

 is by preserved specimens of birds 

 that the worthy gentleman at- 

 tempts to work. What is needed is 

 more students and less collectors. 



We all know of the great 

 damage done by the pot hunters 

 and the small boy who robs nests 

 and kills birds "just for fun," but 

 this can be remedied by proper 

 laws. It is the question of how 

 to protect the bird.- against other 

 enemies, that we are to discuss. 



What is to be done with the 

 English Sparrow .'' One man 

 suggests that if every collector 

 would invest in an air-rifle and 

 use it on them it vvould reduce 

 their numbers. This might help, 

 but I am afraid that it would take 

 more air and patience than could 

 be found. Out of the many ways 

 which have been suggested, the 



