400 THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF BIRDS cuHap. 
The gun must play an important part in ornithology 
till the world is far more depopulated of birds than 
it is at present, though no reasonable ornithologist 
will shoot a bird of a species that can with difficulty 
maintain itself and is in danger of extinction. More- 
over, rarity does not in itself add to the interest of 
a bird. Great Auks, when plentiful, were just as 
interesting as at the present day when there are only 
a few dead specimens in museums. When shooting, 
you learn things that are not likely to come to your 
notice otherwise. You see how vigorous a bird is 
after his wing is broken ; a Cormorant, thus wounded, 
will dive and swim with undiminished activity. If 
you swim after a bird you think you have hopelessly 
crippled, he may lead you a terrible dance. There 
is no truth in the notion that a wounded bird never 
recovers. Brehm! says that he has often shot birds 
whose wing bones had evidently been previously 
shattered by a gunshot. You cannot help, while 
shooting, picking up a great deal of miscellaneous 
information as to the favourite haunts of particular 
species, their feeding times, their comparative shyness, 
their flight, their various notes, and many other 
things. 
Every ornithologist, who can, should travel. Even 
if birds on their migration come to us, there is no 
reason why we should not travel in search of them. 
Those who have seen the nests of our Geese, Gray 
Plovers, Little Stints, Sanderlings, and Knots in the 
far north, are much to be envied. And the tropical 
‘| See Bird Life, by Dr. A. E. Brehm, English translation, 
p. 89. 
