APPENDIX TO MANUAL. 115 



contain four or more males to every female — a disproportion that 

 should be as far reduced as possible. The occasion of the disparity is 

 obvious — females are usually more shy and retiring in disposition, 

 and consequently less frequently noticed, while their smaller size, as 

 a rule, and plainer plumage, further favor their eluding observation. 

 The difference in colori^ng is greatest among -those groups where the 

 males are most richly clad, and the shyness of the mother birds is 

 most marked during the breeding season, just when the males, full of 

 song and in their nuptial attire, become most conspicuous. It is often 

 worth while to neglect the gay Benedicts, to trace out and secure the 

 plainer but not less interesting females. This pursuit, moreover, often 

 leads to discovery of the nests and eggs — an important consideration. 

 Although both sexes are generally found together when breeding, and 

 mixing indiscriminately at other seasons, they often go in separate 

 flocks, and often migrate independently of each other — in this case 

 the males usually in advance. Towards the end of the passage of 

 some warblers, for instance, we may get almost nothing but females, 

 all our specimens of a few days before having been males. The not- 

 able exceptions to the rule of smaller size of the female are among 

 rapacious birds and many waders — though in these last the disparity 

 is not so marked. I do not recall an instance, among American birds, 

 of the female being more richly colored than the male. When the 

 sexes are notably different in adult life, the young of both sexes resem- 

 ble the adult female — the young males gradually assuming their dis- 

 tinctive characters. When the adults of both sexes are alike, the 

 young commonly differ from them. 



In the same connection I wish to urge a point, the importance of 

 which is often overlooked ; it is our practical interpretation of the 

 adage, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Always keep 

 the first specimen you secure of a species till you get another ; no 

 matter how common the species, how poor the specimen, or how cer- 

 tain you may feel of getting other better ones, keep it. Your most 

 reasonable calculations may come to naught, from a variety of cir- 

 cumstances, and any specimen is better than no specimen, on general 

 principles. And in general do not, if you can help it, discard any 

 specimen in the field. No tyro can tell what will prove valuable and 

 what not; while even the expert may regret to find that a point comes 

 up which a specimen he injudiciously discarded might have determined. 

 Let a collection be "weeded out," if at all, only after deliberate and 

 mature examination, when the scientific results it' affords have been 

 elaborated by a competent ornithologist; and even then, the refuse 

 (with certain limitations) had better be put where, it will do some 

 good, than be destroyed utterly. For instance, I myself once valued, 

 and used, some Smithsonian "sweepings" ; and I know very well what 



