;U() The AA'ilsox Bulletin— Xo. 91 



Correspondinir Fellow of the A. O. V.. in a letter to me uiider date 

 of Jaiuiary 1'. V.)^~t. says: "I have not heard of any naturalists 

 hein.ij; killed in tliis terrihle war. hut have already lost several iier- 

 sonal friends. 



■' 1 have two sons-in-law at the L^rout. one of whom is the son of 

 E. (4. Mead-Waldo, tlie well-known Ornithologist, liut mercifully 

 they have escaped so far. I have also two nephews out. and my 

 son is with the Red Cross. 



*' In conJ=e(iuence of the War the sale of my hook. '• The (iannet," 

 has completely stopped, and the oul.v hope I have for it now is 

 that the United States naturalists may buy some copies of the 140 

 still remainiiiii; unsold." * 



It is profoundly to be hojied. quite apart from the casualties that 

 may take place amonij scientists of all classes in this disastrous 

 war, that no one of the number of the ornithologists of the various 

 coimtries involved, whose names appear among our Honorary and 

 Corresponding Fellows of the American Ornithologists' Union, will 

 he called upon for army service and perhaps fall victims to the de- 

 mand for their services in any such capacity. It is all ver>' well if 

 a naturalist be a connnissioned officer in the army or navy to meet 

 the duties devolving ui>on him in times of war. notwithstanding 

 the danger in which his life may be placed or his researches in- 

 terrupted : liut this is vastly different from taking civilians who 

 are men of science, of exceptional and uni(pie value and actively 

 at work upon scientitic researches in institutions, out of their po- 

 sitions and making privates in the army of them, carrying them 

 out on the tiring line, to run the chance of being .shot down along- 

 side of Tom. Dick, or Harry, who. in many instances, may not be 

 worth the cartridge it takes to kill him. and who often is a good 

 riddance to the country that claims him as citizen. The world can 

 not afford to do this; no nation ought to place the lives of such of 

 her men of mark in jeopardy. — to place them wheVe a single 

 bullet, fired liy some common soldier, may wijie out a life that it 

 has required generati<:)ns to jiroduce. and whose works may be one 

 of the torches of an advancing civilization. The very thought of 

 such stupidity and senseless waste is in itself ajipJiHing and. to 

 the cultured mind, almost parnlyzing. 



<^uite apart from all this, it may be well to note that this war 

 in I'hirope is having a very unlooked-f<H* effect upon American sci- 

 ence. Before this international catastroi)!)!' on the Continent, scicn- 



* Incidentally 1 may remark that I hoiie that those who have not 

 already a co])y of .Mr. (iurney's valuable classic on the gannet will 

 ;\vail theuiselvcs of this oiiiiortmiity to itlace one upon their shelves; 

 it is a model volume on tlie life-history of the sjiecies. 



