LARGE USE OF OOLOGY. 107 



emphasized by the fact that the other species of the 

 same genus nestle as early in the season as any of 

 the Fringillidoe, and, in the case of the pine-finch, a 

 good deal earlier. 



APPLICATIONS FOE FACTS. 



The importance of the gathering of all these facts, 

 of course, lies in the use we are able to make of 

 them for the general advancement of science. If the 

 breeding habits of birds form the most noteworthy 

 phase of their existence, and oology is, as I hold, an 

 integral part of ornithology, then all its facts have 

 an ulterior bearing and application to questions of 

 the history and economy of bird-life just as much as 

 the facts and statistics of geographical distribution, 

 migration or food, — and even more. And if they 

 have this bearing upon the elucidation of the history 

 of birds, they also necessarily reach farther, and mate- 

 rially aid the progress of insight into the intricacies 

 of animal life generally, and so advance not only 

 ornithology alone, but zoology, biology in general and 

 finally the whole of human learning. 



It is perfectly fair to look at our investigations in 

 this large way, and the education of our minds to do 

 so dignifies our work, enlarges the conception of its 



