370 Dr. A. G. Butler,


knowledge? — I trow not. The single item of bird-food, because

of the extent to which it affects agriculture, and consequently

the well-being of man and beast, is of the highest scientific

importance.


Aviculture, or the study of bird-life in aviaries and cages,

is a necessary adjunct to the study of the wild life ; to those of

us who are not able to wander over the face of the earth, it is the

only way in which we can discover many facts relating to the

birds of other lands : even those who do travel are often unable

to study the life-history of a bird on account of its skulking

habits, whereas in a suitable aviary there is no difficulty what-

ever.


Of course all aviculturists do not take up the study of


birds in a scientific spirit ; many of them merely take pleasure

in keeping them because they are charming ornaments for the

home ; but this fact does not prove that Aviculture in its highest

sense is unscientific. Many of the truths affecting the synoi^my,

the nidification, the courting, the tendency to polygamy or

polyandry, the duration of incubation, and the sexual characters

of birds, which aviculturists have brought to light, should be of

the greatest scientific interest even to a systematise


Dr. E. Hartert says that " Aviculture is generally a hobby,

and a very interesting one, but not strictly a branch of science,

although sometimes scientific questions have been and will be

solved by its means, especially when experiments are made with

that purpose." (Proceedings of Fourth Int. Orn. Congr. p. 266).

The same may be truthfully said of systematic work : the

majority of those who take up the various branches of Natural

History do so for the sake of a hobby ; some of them, like the

keepers of living birds, are mere collectors and only visit

Museums in order to find out the names of their specimens, but

among these private collectors are men who are fully as scientific

and methodical as any Museum curator.


Dr. Hartert says that " Ornithology has advanced further

than many other branches of zoology." Is this so ? Can the

systematic Ornithologist sex all his skins at sight as the

Eutomologist does his insects? If so, why is it that there are

more uusexed than sexed skins in collections? A science which



