to give public account of our stewardship. We should prefer, of course, to be 

 judged by experts, but that is not the way of democracies, and this is assuredly 

 the day of democracy. No cause, in the last analysis, can endure which cannot 

 abide the exercise of the public suffrage. If that suffrage is ignorant or uninstruc- 

 ted, it is our own fault. The way of salvation for any cause lies through the 

 exercise of an intelligent suffrage. If the collectors of birds' eggs persist in a 

 policy of secrecy, in a policy of evasion or equivocation, if they amass huge 

 collections which they neither care for nor understand, if they treat birds' eggs 

 as commodities for barter and exchange, or if they regard only the rarity of the 



NEST AND EGGS OF VERMILION FLYCATCHER. NOTE DELICACY OF PRESERVATION 

 ALTHOUGH TRANSPORTED 600 MILES. FROM SERIES, CASE X, DRAWER 7, M. C. O. 



objects of their pursuit, and redouble their efforts to get in on species likely to 

 become extinct, — if they do any or all of these things, then be assured that an 

 aroused public indignation will be kindled against them, and the privileges of 

 the collectors will be curtailed, those of the just with those of the unjust. No 

 doubt in that case, also, the fault will be partly chargeable to intolerance, but 

 that will be small comfort when the mischief is done. No, the only way to secure 

 ;ustice and to vindicate legitimate claims, is to play the game — any game — in 

 the open, to plav square, and to demand the public approval. 



It is precisely for this reason that the Museum of Comparative Oology 

 has set itself the task of mediatorship. Some of the "egg hogs" are bored, and 

 some of the dealers are resentful, but the conscientious collectors and the cons- 

 cientious administrators of the public enactments alike applaud our efforts. It 

 is perfectly possible to bring about a sincere understanding between science and 

 conservation, the public being judge. 



If we turn to new matters, we shall find that the practice of oology has 



