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ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



equally valuable : they forget that the rarity of an 

 object constitutes its current value, and that in propor- 

 tion as more are brought into the market, so does their 

 yalue diminish. At the sale of Bullock's museum, very 

 many of the humming birds sold for as many guineas 

 as they can now be purchased for shillings. It is our 

 duty to guard individuals from incurring severe losses, 

 although it is to the interests of science that these 

 materials for our study should be cheap and abundant. 

 We know of two instances where a whole museum of 

 animals, &c. has been purchased at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, under the idea that its sale in England would 

 realise a large profit ; when, after being exhibited in 

 London, and subsequently sold, the proceeds have 

 hardly covered one-half of the original purchase. There 

 are persons again, in India, New Holland, Tortola, 

 Bio de Janeiro, and other stations, who trade in these 

 objects, and they are purchased by persons returning 

 to England, under the supposition of their selling to 

 advantage. Such speculators will generally be greatly 

 deceived. Our supplies exceed the demand. There 

 are, comparatively, few persons as yet who form regular 

 collections of birds ; for if they are fond of ornithology, 

 they can see what specimens they desire at the public 

 museums, now formed, or forming, in all the great 

 towns of England. The directors or managers of 

 these latter, again, depend chiefly on donations for 

 adding new specimens to their collections ; the funds 

 devoted to this object, if any, being generally very 

 trifling. Hence it happens that large collections, for 

 which no purchasers can be found, are generally sacri- 

 ficed at auctions, or sold to the dealers for about one- 

 third their value. Desirous, therefore, as we must be 

 to encourage the importation of ornithological speci- 

 mens, for the greater diffusion of knowledge, we yet 

 cannot hold out any other object that they will accom- 

 plish. Large collections of common American birds are 

 now frequently sold at an average of two shillings a 

 skin ; a sum which is probably much less than their 



