The Oologist. 



Vol. XXIV. No. 3. 



Albion, N. Y., Mar., 1907. 



Whole No. 236 



THE OOLOGIST, 



A Monthly Publication Devoted to 

 OOLOGY, ORNITHOLOGY AND TAXI- 

 DERMY. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Publisher, 



ALBION, N. Y. 



ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student of Birds, their Nests and Eggs, solicited 

 from all. 



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Taxidermy for Bird Students. 



By JAY G. SIGMUXD. 

 To beginners in the study of nat- 

 ural history this question usually pre- 

 sents itself, "How am I going to 

 make a close study of birds and ani- 

 mals without killing them?" 



We are all familiar with the many 

 different methods of studying nature 

 without "bloodshed," viz: the camera, 

 field glass, bird magazine, etc., but 

 we cannot as active students be satis- 

 fied with a mere photograph or ten 

 minute examination of a bird through 

 a field glass, and it is here that the 

 art of taxidermy comes, a friend in 

 need. 



James Russell Lowell says in 

 speaking of birds, "I bring them near 

 to me with a field glass, a much 'bet- 

 ter weapon than a gun." With all due 

 respect to James Russell's feelings, 

 I want to say that he made a better 

 poet than a naturalist. 



Ernest Seton Thompson says, "In 

 order to learn what I have learned 

 about birds, I had to do killing and 

 lots of it." 



But Mr. Thompson did not kill 

 birds, examine them and then throw 

 them away. He preserved them so 

 that he could always keep them and 

 refer to them at any time. 



Personally, I do not advocate whole- 

 sale slaughter of any birds or ani- 

 mals, or anything of the sort. But 

 to the bird student, I would say, learn 

 as much about taxidermy as you pos- 

 sibly can. never kill a bird if you can 

 find out what you want to know about 

 it without doing so, and never kill a 

 bird or animal without preserving it 

 to the best of your ability. 



You will find no trouble in getting 

 hold of plenty of literature on this 

 subject and I would earnestly recom- 

 mend that every bird-lover do so. 



The more bird students we have, 

 the better it will be for the preserva- 

 tion of our birds in the end. A man 

 who understands and loves birds is 

 always on the lookout, to prevent their 

 destruction. So that the few birds 

 that are killed now for study will help 

 to preserve many bird lives in the 

 future. 



So. as I said before, do as little 

 killing as possible, but when you do 

 kill, preserve your specimens. 



