NESTS AND EGGS OF THE CRIMSON-LEGGED CRAKE (Amaurornis akool). TAKEN BY REV. H. R. 

 CALDWELL, NEAR YENPING, CHINA. SEE CASE XXII. DRAWER 15, M. C. O. 



not the degree and quality of variation is dependent upon local conditions 

 This is a large and fortunately exceptional order." We said series not clutches, 

 so the case in this particular instance is really worse than represented by our 

 critic. We are guilty — in case of the California Jay — and we will provide house 

 room for all the Jays' eggs which anybody, anywhere will collect for us; because we 

 hold this entire group of birds guilty of the most enormous destruction of bird 

 life. But we have no intention of indulging series of "eighty clutches each" of 

 beneficial or even of neutral species. 



Again: "It is obvious that if the Members of this band [i.e. The Members 

 of the Museum of Comparative Oology] fulfil what is expected of them, their 

 ravages, so far as the British Islands are concerned, will be very serious." Dear! 

 dear! Serious enough, no doubt, to provoke the attention of the village constable, 

 as well as this distinguished exponent of the British Museum. Listen brother: 

 The entire world toll of birds' eggs exacted by the Museum of Comparative Oology 

 during the calendar year 1920 was equal to, but did not exceed, one hundredth 

 of one per cent of the destruction to bird life occasioned by the Jays of Santa 

 Barbara County last year. One despairs of achieving sanity in conservation 

 or science, if its case is to be presented by one so utterly wanting in a sense of 

 proportion as is Mr. Pycraft. 



"For each [Member of the M. C. O.] is asked, after filling his own cabinets, 

 to do his best to fill those of any other collector from here to New Zealand." Not 

 guilty as charged! This institution is interested in building up a centralized 

 collection upon cooperative lines, which by the greatest economy of material shall 

 compass the broadest service. That such a policy as ours will tend to the great- 

 est conservation o* bird's eggs is self-evident to any one who is at pains to under- 

 stand our real aims instead of trying to slash at imaginary bogies over our shoul- 

 ders. By way of making himself solid with the profession, our critic says: 



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