be dispelled by the recently issued journal of the new institution. The Museum 

 proposes to secure a complete collection of the eggs of the birds of the world, 

 together with "as many nests and skins as are necessary to enable the eggs to 

 tell their full story." There are some birds whose eggs are invariable in colour, 

 and in these cases the Museum is to be content with a dozen sets of each. But 

 when the colours, or markings, or shapes vary, as happens with very large num- 

 bers of species, as many as eighty sets of each are aimed at. Collectors in all 

 parts of the world are to be encouraged, and the managers are ready to beg eggs, 

 to exchange for them, or to buy them. Birds have many enemies. The en- 

 croachment of civilization is limiting their range. The plumage trade is taking 

 a heavy toll. The farmer and the gardener, who do not know their friends, con- 

 tinue to slaughter them. We need not discuss the relative demerits of these 

 three agencies of destruction. But the collector, acting either in the supposed 

 interest of science, or from the lust of acquisitiveness, deserves a special word. 

 He is alert, well informed, and insatiable. If a bird be rare or hitherto unknown 

 in a locality, if a species be nearly extinct, the collector recognizes a valuable prey, 

 and hastens to secure it. A just indignation has been aroused against plume- 

 hunters, who, in quest of gain, have plundered breeding-grounds and attacked 

 their guardians. But it should be remembered that even in Great Bntian, 

 when lovers of birds are trying to protest the nests of rare breeders, they have 

 to keep watch and ward against the emissaries of collectors of eggs. The creation 

 of a new demand, with wide ambitions and ample funds, may well be disastrous. 

 The authorities of the Museum claim that their object is scientific. They as- 

 sert that no avian structure is more significant than the egg, and by egg they 

 mean 'egg-shell,' for they give the usual instructions as to the removal of the 

 contents. They propose to discover the phylogeny of birds from study of the 

 shells. They claim that the laws they will ascertain will throw 'a flood of light 

 on the whence and the whither of life itself.' If these pretensions were just, 

 eggs would indeed be golden, and there would be additional reason for not helping 

 to kill the birds that lay them. But already many great museums with col- 

 lections of eggs exist. Already many highly-skilled observers have worked on a 

 rich material, and have reached a well-founded and almost unanimous verdict 

 that few structures have less phylogenetic significance than the eggs of birds." 

 In so far as these and subsequent criticisms are entitled to serious con- 

 sideration, we have endeavored to meet the main issue fairly in the preceding 

 articles entitled "A Candid Consideration," etc.; but in view of manifest in- 

 accuracies, not to say insincerities of statement in some of these attacks, we pro- 

 pose to indulge, in this review, a somewhat less guarded utterance. However, 

 before we pass on to judgment, let us mark how this leader was received at home. 

 Upon the publication of this editorial, our good friend, Kenneth L. Skinner, 

 editor of the "Oologists Exchange and Mart" (now "The Oologists Record"), 

 addressed the following communication to the editor of "The Times": 



"The Editor," "The Times", 



Printing House Square, E. C. 4. 

 Sir: 



"I read with interest the leading article in your issue of the 15th. instant 

 under the heading 'A New Threat to Birds', and, as a member of the Honorary 

 Board of Foreign Advisors to the Museum of Comparative Oology, representing 

 Continental Europe, I hope I may be permitted some brief comment upon it. 



"The Museum of Comparative Oology has been established some time, 

 its Charter was granted by the State of California on the 27th, January 191b, 

 but your article would appear to have been inspired by the last issue of the Mu- 

 seum Journal, dated 31st March last. If this be the case, it would have been 

 fairer had your leader writer made himself more conversant with the avowed 

 objects of the institution as set for in the Journal of that date. He would have 

 seen that the Director of the Museum makes there a powerful appeal for the re- 



10 



