HINTS TO ORNITHOLOGISTS. SI I 
science. Travellers, and now and then a foreigner, 
come to them, and desire that they will revise, or 
concoct, or prepare, a work for the press. They 
comply with the request. But, having little or no 
knowledge themselves of the real habits of birds, 
they do not perceive the numberless faults in the 
pages which they are requested to prepare for the 
public eye. Hence it is that errors innumerable 
stare us in the face, when we open books which 
profess to treat on the nature and the habits of 
birds. 
What a world we live in ! say I, when I read that 
turkey-cocks will break all the eggs of the females, 
for the purpose of protracting their future frolics ; 
and that another species of b]fd flies away from the 
nest, when the egg is hatched, in order to procure 
food for the young one. 
I tremble for the welfare of ornithology, when I 
am informed that the ornithologist, nowadays, is 
not expected to climb lofty trees and precipices, in 
order to ascertain whether the birds which frequent 
them are in the habit of fabricating their own nests, 
or of using a natural cavity. 
We are gravely told it cannot be expected that 
field ornithologists should risk life and limb, in order 
to ascertain such points. This is melancholy doctrine, 
and he who is determined to follow it must be content 
to remain in ignorance. 
I cannot admit that the mere art of preserving the 
skin of a bird is sufficient to answer every scientific 
purpose ; and 1 disagree with him who will not allow 
X 4? 
