398 THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF BIRDS cHapP. 
structure of each unfamiliar nest he finds and writing 
a description of it, of waiting about to see the old 
birds and listening to the song of the cock, if he does 
sing, and of verifying on getting home the one egg 
he has possessed himself of, by referring to books 
for an account of the eggs, nest, and bird; he is a 
rational being and little in danger of developing the 
greed that is the vice of the collector. Certainly 
he will never be guilty of the folly, that should 
be criminal, of buying rare eggs, and so raising 
their market value to the imminent danger of 
exterminating the species. 
If you wish to look upon a scene of beauty, vigorous 
life and jostling sociability, you should go to some 
out-of-the-way cliff or island where seabirds nest 
—pay a visit to a colony of Puffins, most naive, most 
comic of birds, sitting at the thresholds of their 
crowded nestholes—see the Guillemots lining long 
ledges that are perilously narrow for their eggs—sce 
the Razorbills, the Oystercatchers, the flocks of Kitti- 
wakes and all the other winged things of loveliness. 
But, perhaps, nothing of the kind that Great Britain 
can show can equal the scene on some island in the 
Pacific, where acres of land are clothed with grave 
Albatrosses too busy with their eggs and their young 
to think of flying away from men and cameras. 
Much may be learnt by shooting specimens, and 
if you either skin every bird you shoot, or pay for 
the skinning, you are likely to avoid indiscriminate 
slaughter. Many people are not content with a field- 
glass; they want more tangible results than it gives 
them. And some birds will not stop to be looked at. 
