38 EXTERNAL PARTS 



protection and increase ought to make you slow to interfere 

 with their nests and eggs. Single eggs of most birds can be 

 carefully taken from nests, without special harm. More than 

 this should never be appropriated except for the purpose of 

 completing great collections, which can be studied by thou- 

 sands of people. Such institutions as the American Museum 

 of Natural History in New York City, the National Museum 

 in "Washington, and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Phila- 

 delphia, should of course be supplied with full sets of eggs 

 with their nests. The educational value of such collections 

 overbalances the injury done. But the usefulness of private 

 collections is not great enough to justify the injury to the 

 birds. A collection for the educational uses of a school, made 

 by taking single eggs from nests, answers all the ordinary 

 demands. 



