REV. LEANDER S. KEYSER. 45 



However, before I go farther, I desire to say that no one 

 should object to the gathering of avian museums in colleges 

 and large cities for purposes of scientific investigation and 

 to assist the beginner in the task of identifying species. 

 We have no quarrel with the true specialist, who has 

 rendered valuable service to all lovers of birds and who is 

 as merciful as he can be. But for the professional collector 

 who pursues his calling to gratify the whims of private 

 persons, mere curio-hunters, no excuse can be made. A 

 collector in Canada sends me a long list of eggs and 

 " clutches," and asks me if I do not want to buy. He 

 doubtless has sent the same harrowing list to hundreds of 

 other bird-lovers. He wants to dispose of his present stock, 

 because he is soon going to the far north on an extensive 

 collecting tour, and will doubtless return with many rare 

 eggs, which he hopes to dispose of to good advantage. 

 No ! I do not want one of those eggs, for it would be 

 nothing to me but a memento of man's inhumanity to birds. 

 Every egg would tell me of a bird's heart sob. If this 

 gentleman should make an expedition for the purpose of 

 studying the habits of birds in the Arctic regions without 

 killing them or robbing their nests, and then should publish 

 his discoveries, I should be glad to buy his book. But 

 his empty egg-shells — no, I want none of them. The ghosts 

 of birds that might have been would haunt my dreams. If 

 that is sentimentality, then I am a sentimentalist of the 

 rankest ilk. 



Is there anything so very valuable to science in extreme 

 minutiae ? Must a hundred birds be ruthlessly slaughtered 

 to find out whether there are a few inches of difference in 

 their lengths from beak to tail, or from wing-tip to wing-tip ? 

 Is it an extraordinary contribution to science to be able to 

 report that a typical clutch of the beautiful Prothonotary 

 Warbler's eggs measured .72 x .57, .7 1 x .56, .70 x .58, .7 1 x .54, 

 .70 X .59, and .72 X .58 ? How long will the collector himself 

 remember those figures? Suppose he had studied the 



