THE OOLOGIST. 



87 



spicuous in certain sections of the 

 country,) greatly prefer to devote their 

 energies to the amassing of large col- 

 lections, in extensive series, with ques- 

 tions of classification a"? the main or sole 

 object, rather than to a patient research 

 into the knowledge of birds as living 

 creatures, a very pertinent reason is not 

 far to seek. It has ever been a failing 

 of earnest students along particular 

 lines, in their enthusiasm over methods. 

 to forget the object originally sought, 

 to confound (unconsciously) meaws with 

 ■end. To those of us today, humble 

 students as some of us may be, who 

 have little sympathy with the hair- 

 splitting methods of many advanced 

 ornithologists, it appears quite evident 

 that in every accessible country, with 

 ever increasing persistency and enthu- 

 siasm immense collections are being 

 made, and alarmingly large series of 

 certain forms from restricted localities, 

 with apparently no other object in view 

 than the discovering of some insignifi- 

 cant character, whose variation from 

 the corresponding character in the rec- 

 ognized form, may prove constant 

 enough to permit the describing of 

 "new form." and the adding of an- 

 other name to a rather misleadingly 

 large list, incidentally perpetuating the 

 glory of the finder's name, or that of 

 some friend, in the language of science. 

 Probably no bird student will assume 

 that in its time, this method of research 

 has not proved productive of some re- 

 sults to actual knowledge but it will be 

 rather difficalt to convince lovers of 

 birds rather than methods, that the 

 results of such practise, as carried on 

 today, justify the means. If it can be 

 made to appear that we pursue the 

 study of ornithology for the purpose of 

 contributing to the refinement and ex- 

 actitude of classification, that this is the 

 end sought, then can no dissent be 

 offered to the methods above referred 

 to, but if classification is an instrument 

 only, intended to aid in the study of 



living birds, then to at least some of 

 the humble students, there appears to 

 be a danger that the practice of the 

 above mentioned methods has a ten- 

 dency to perfect the instrument by the 

 impairment if not the total sacrifice of 

 the object originally aimed at. 



Although it would appear that the 

 views of Mr. Reginald C. Robbins, are 

 those of an extremist of a pronounced 

 type, yet there is strong suggestion of 

 truth (perhaps in somewhat exaggerat- 

 ed terms,) in his claim that to the 

 classificatory quibbler no series is com- 

 plete as long as one bird of the species 

 remains alive, an example of individual 

 variation.* 



If then, a young student just entering 

 the ranks of active workers, anxious to 

 advance himself to the highest place 

 possible in these ranks, casts about for 

 a worthy example, what more natural 

 than that he should note that bird kill- 

 ing occupies a front place, and that 

 the describing of a bone, a muscle and 

 particularly a feather, has so monopo- 

 lized honor and attention, that as wit- 

 ness today we have an ever growing 

 army of bird killers, and quite recently 

 an ornithologist, acknowledged to be 

 one of the foremost, classifies as out- 

 side scientific ornithology, all of the 

 questions of bird study save those deal- 

 ings with "structure and classification 

 of birds, their synonymies and scien- 

 tific description." 



Many bird students are so situated 

 that museums and large scientific in- 

 stitutions are inaccessable. All will 

 agree that no such coUectien is 

 likely to be quite so accessable to the 

 private student, as would a small pri- 

 vate collection It is a necessity and 

 primarily essential, that the student 

 should know the birds he is to observe, 

 and most ornithologists will agree that 

 nothing is so helpful to that end, as the 



* Bird-Killing as a Method la Ornithology. 

 By Reginald C. Robbins. A pamphlet mailed 

 by author to members of the A. O. U. with the 

 Jan. 1902 "Auk." 



