82 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIII 
work of such extremists as ma}' be seen for instance on page 23 of The Auk, vol. 
XVI, I desire to protest. Here the subspecific characters of a ver}^ questionable 
subspecies of Hylocichla are given in this way. “Chars, subsp. — Ilylodchla 
II. ii. ustulafac siniilis, sed hypochoiidri/s ct partibus superiorihus paUidioribus ac 
minus ru fcsccntibus." Alas! poor English, to the writer, evidently seemed in- 
adequate to explain these intricate differences, so it became necessary to resort to a 
language worse than foreign. Dr- Samuel Johnson has said, speaking of certain 
writings of Addison in Latin, that “when matter is low or scanty, a dead language, 
in which nothing is mean because nothing is familiar, affords great conveniences, 
and, by the sonorous magnificence of Roman syllables, the wniter conceals penury 
of thought often from the reader and often from himself.” There are other in- 
stances, I think, beside certain works of Addison in Latin, to which this is also 
applicable. 
One of our foremost ornithologists has sought to differentiate scientific and 
popular ornithology by the separation of the study of dead birds from live ones, 
and at first glance this may perhaps seem a very pleasant arrangement. In the 
museum the corpse is measured, dissected, its every wing and tail feather counted, 
and every curve of its bill or claw, and often trivial differences in coloration noted. 
Why do not these same exact methods prevail in the field ? The answer in my 
opinion is because the work of the bird anatomists, following as it does certain set 
and well defined lines is by far the simpler. If field-work, which they are pleased 
to call “popular” ornithology, is so simple why can not some of these closet 
naturalists spare a few hours in the field and settle some of the little problems 
which puz7de us poor field ornithologists, such as comparative velocity of bird- 
flights, migration, instinct, susceptibility to the charm of certain snakes, the cause 
of the heavy proportion of infertile eggs in certain species, decoy nests, the pos- 
sible use of bird sentinels in nesting time, the motionless flight of the gull with and 
against the wind, the cause of tender shelled eggs, the reason for spotted eggs 
when not explainable by the theory of protective coloration, etc., etc. I believe 
much work in the field and in the museum, as well, must be done before these 
problems are solved; yet certain writers contend that articles dealing with such sub- 
jects are necessarily “popular.” Surely they are! Because the live bird is, and 
always will be, more interesting than a dead bird; but what folly to insist that the 
study of one is more scientific than the other! 
There are certain non-essential things not directly connected with the study of 
bird life, that can, I think, be eliminated in the preparation of a manuscript with- 
out the latter losing any of its scientific value. For instance, in describing the nest 
of a killdeer as merely a small collection of even-sized pebbles, if one should enlarge 
and give the measurements, shape and kind of each pebble, would such information 
be of any particular value? Yet,t)n the other hand while sometimes equally irrele- 
vant information is given, certain seemingL^ unimportant details are passed un- 
noticed. An instance of this latter sort, liable perhaps to have been overlooked if 
it had not been so frequent, was the finding at Lake Valley last June (1910), all 
told, five nests of the House Finch {Carpodacus mexicanus ti'OJitalis) which were 
in close proximity to those of the Western Robin ( Plauesticus migratorius propiu- 
quus). Perhaps these cases were simply the result of accident. The nests of the 
blouse Finch in every instance were the last built, but this fact proves little as this 
is in accordance with the usual nesting dates of the two species in the valley. In a 
region overrun with chipmunks, whose depredations on bird life are incalculable, a 
desire on the part of the House Finch to gain protection by propinquity to the home 
of a larger and more combative bird is certainly an interesting trait and worthy of 
