THE JOURNAL 



of the Museum of Comparative Oology 



Copyright, 1921, by William Leon Dawson 

 Intended eventually to be issued as a Quarterly, but now put out as a SEMI-ANNUAL 



VOL. II 



DOUBLE NUMBER 



NOS. 1 and 2 



[Issued August 16, 1921] 



A CANDID EXAMINATION 

 OF THE RIGHT TO COLLECT BIRDS' EGGS 



By William Leon Dawson 



IHOSE who are well informed are aware 

 of an increasing difference of opinion which 

 is developing between the champions and 

 votaries of zoological science, and the ex- 

 ponents of protection, the so-called humani- 

 tarian school. Whether this difference shall 

 develop into an irrepressible conflict, or 

 whether it will be found possible to reconcile all 

 differences in a broader understanding of 

 truth, depends, alike, upon the temper of 

 the disputants, and upon their ability, or 

 willingness, to reconcile facts. We will not 

 stop to point out that Science has itself laid 

 the foundations of Conservation, that its 

 sober marshaling of facts has been the in- 

 centive and mainstay of those who would 

 arrest the destructive processes, or who would 

 secure to posterity the richest variety of life 

 in the interests of a more genuine civilization. 

 The fact is that a motley company has 

 assembled under the banner of Conservation. 

 This company includes protectionists, not a 

 few, who neither know nor respect the older 

 scientific leaders; and some of the newer recruits are even willing to challenge 

 the very rights of zoological investigation. "Why", say these sentimentalists, 

 "if we believe in the conservation of life, should we permit any destruction of 

 the living?" "And is it not inconsistent," argue these neophytes, "that the very 

 advocates of conservation should be allowed exceptional privileges in the ex- 

 ploiting of animal life?" Some of this new school, bolder than the rest, affirm 

 that scientific investigation is a mere sham, and that the scientific pretense is a 

 cloak for blood-lust, or at least a perfectly useless survival of an attitude and 

 method now discredited. 



It is an historical fact that this new criticism has borne most heavily upon 

 Oology and the Oologist. Of all zoological collecting the "robbing of birds' 

 nests" has been declared the most offensive and the most useless. Whether 

 this was chiefly because the collecting of birds' eggs has been considered a youth- 

 ful pursuit, and on that account one to be suspected, or frowned upon by the 

 adult and the blase, or whether, indeed, Oology has failed of realizing its own 



WESTERN MOCKINGBIRD 



