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Section V. 

 AVICÜLTÜKE 



THE IMPORTANCE OF AVICULTURE AS AN AID 

 TO THE STUDY OF ORNITHOLOGY. 



BY 



D. Seth-Smith, M.B.O.U. 



A writer in the current number of the " Ibis " (1905, p.169) 

 remarks : — " It is well to remember that the systematic 

 naming and diagnosis of a species is merely the threshold at 

 the entrance to the essential knowledge of its life-sphere — a 

 small fraction only of the sum total of the natural history 

 of the species." Cabinet ornithology is a science of the very 

 utmost importance, and without our well arranged museums 

 and excellent systematists we should be hopelessly in the 

 dark in our study of birds. But however valuable is the work 

 of the cabinet ornithologist (and I would not on any account 

 underrate its importance) it is, after all, a skin-deep study 

 only — it tells us little of the natural history of birds. We 

 want to know the life-history of the various species ; how 

 they construct their nests, upon what they feed their young, 

 the number of eggs they lay, how long they take to incubate, 

 the plumage of their young at various ages, and a thousand 

 points which can only become known by a close study of the 

 living birds. 



There are hundreds of species represented in our museums, 

 the actual life-history of which practically nothing is known. 

 Collectors have obtained them, in most cases, merely for the 

 sake of securing specimens, and with no thought of observing 



