however, if the layman has any idea of numbers in relation to birds' eggs. A 

 friend of mine, now in the North of Norway, was taken to a small island near 

 Tromsoe to see the nesting place of one of the gulls and secured a few sets for his 

 collection. He was informed that, owing to a present scarcity of the fish upon 

 which these gulls subsist, there were fewer birds nesting there than usual, but that 

 in most years it was no uncommon thing for 20,000 eggs of that one species to be 

 gathered there for human food. 



"Another instance, which throws light on this subject, is the fact that an 

 English collector, who wished to secure a set of the rare blue form of the eggs of 

 the Common Plover, so well known as a delicacy, was able, after -inspecting over 

 450,000 eggs gathered in one district during about 20 years for the London 

 market, to secure the one set required. 



"The anti-oologist, who usually has little or no knowledge of bird life, 

 points to the extreme rarity of such birds as the Buzzard and Peregrine Falcon 

 and the Bittern and Great Bustard and lays this at the door of the collector. It 

 is well known however that game preservers are responsible for the scarcity of 

 the first two species named while the others have disappeared as the result of the 

 reclamation, during the past 100 years or so, of our larger stretches of fen and 

 heath land. 



"To show how birds will multiply, in spite of the sternest measures taken 

 to exterminate them, and even when their nests are placed in the most obvious 

 and accessible places, one has only to point to the cherry growing districts of Mid- 

 Kent, where every Blackbird and Thrush is shot when the cherries are ripe, and 

 where every boy is encouraged to destroy their nests and young but where there 

 is still no appreciable diminution in the numbers of these most treasured song- 

 sters. 



"I think I have said enough to prove that the toll that egg collectors 

 take of our bird life is infinitesimal. We may, however, differ on the ethics of the 

 matter just as many people differ as to the ethics of fox hunting and angling and 

 yet do not seek to pillory those who follow these pursuits. Yet even those who 

 would deny to individuals the right to indulge this scientific hobby might at 

 least appreciate the fact that the Museum of Comparative Oology has undertaken 

 a work for which posterity may well be grateful. Had there been such an in- 

 stitution a hundred years ago we should not now lament the dearth of eggs of 

 the Great Auk, once so common, but which was not exterminated by egg collec- 

 tors, or of other species which will probably share the fate of that most interesting 

 bird as the spread of population denies them foothold. I am, Sir, 



Your obedient Servant," 



(Signed) Kenneth L. Skinner. 



Weybridge, 17th July, 1920. 



This communcation was not published by the Times, a circumstance which 

 we cannot but regard as unfortunate, in view of the Briton's traditional love of 

 fair play. We submit that Mr. Skinner's rejoinder constitutes as judicious and 

 temperate a defense as the most fastidious editor could require; while the writer's 

 ability and first-hand acquaintance with the facts speak for themselves. 



Some two months later the signed article already referred to appeared in 

 "The Illustrated London News." Unfortunately our lack of space forbids the 

 reproduction of Mr. Pycraft's later article entire, but it is so full of ill-tempered 

 accusations, innuendoes, exaggerations, and "scare stuff," that its misrepresenta- 

 tions cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed. For example, the critic repeats his 

 assumption of "eighty species" in the following words: "But where the coloration 

 or the shape varies, as is the case with a very considerable number of species, as 

 many as eighty clutches of each species is to be collected." The only suggestion 

 of Pycraf ts "eighty clutches," as a norm, contained in any of my writings, is the 

 following {Journal of the Museum o* Comparative Oology, Volume 1, Number 1, 

 Page 15); "California Jays' eggs, on the other hand, are highly variable in color, 

 and to a series of forty sets showing the range of this variation, may possibly be 

 added a grouping of forty series from as many localities, to establish whether or 



