210 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVII 
I may cite the fact that the writer in ap- 
plying, late in the season, for a license to 
collect in the State of Ohio in the season of 
1909, found that there was only one other 
application in. Yet anyone who knows the 
average situation in the East, would wager 
there were a thousand collectors, from 
schoolboys up, taking unlicensed toll of the 
birds at that very time. That is a very mod- 
est estimate, for it gives only one collector 
for each 4700 of population in Ohio. That 
the situation may be somewhat nearly the 
same in California, I leave to your own 
imagination. 
Another obstacle to a complete under- 
standing between collectors and the Com- 
missioners, lies in the ambiguity of the 
phrase “scientific purposes”. It has been 
assumed by certain officials, entirely with- 
out warrant, that scientists do not use 
money, or that science is merely a pastime 
instead of (occasionally and happily) a 
profession. This bald assumption that 
the use of money is unscientific, and 
that a monetary consideration in the 
exchange of the objects of science is 
unscientific and therefore unlawful, has 
brought the whole mechanism of scientific 
exchange as well as scientific acquisition 
and quest to a standstil. Either that, or it 
has plunged its participants into a fogbank 
of hypocrisies and deceits. The situation is 
impossible. Why, even preachers, who dis- 
pense a “free” gospel, must “live of the 
gospel”, “for as the Scripture saith, thou 
shalt not muzzle the ox that treadetli out 
the corn”. The transfer of a scientific spe- 
cimen from one cabinet to a better one is 
of most distinct benefit to science, if both 
parties to the transaction are scientists and 
know what they are handling. The “con- 
sideration” may have been a return in kind, 
or cash, according to the exigencies of sci- 
entist number one. The transaction is no 
less scientific, or for less “strictly scientific 
purposes”, if a scientist knowing what he 
wants and approximately where to get it, 
commissions party number one, who may be 
a scientist or a farmer or a sailor, to get it 
for him, and pays him for his time or for 
the job. The thing is done every day and is 
done in high places, and it is scientific in its 
results. That these transactions sometimes 
take place under the frown of the law or 
under its (supposed) prohibition is only evi- 
dence of the wretched tangle into which we 
have got ourselves. Now I propose to have 
this whole matter cleared up. At least I 
propose that we see justice done, and not 
sit idly by while all public museums and 
wealthy collectors buy what impecunious 
collectors are forbidden (by assumption 
and common report) to sell. 
I know that this, too, is a very tender sub- 
ject. I know that the assumption aforesaid 
(worked to a finish here in California) has 
had a salutary influence in restraining the 
operations of unprincipled collectors ( not 
scientists) who were out for the coin. These 
collectors, precisely because they were not 
scientists, have sold their wares to “egg- 
hogs”, have made incorrect or haphazard 
identifications, or have handled faked data. 
The day of the commercial collector is hap- 
pily past; but did we not do evil that good 
might come? And has not Science, legiti- 
mate, simon-pure, high-minded Science, 
suffered immeasurable injury thereby? Ask 
any man who is trying to build up an im- 
portant collection. 
Now what I propose is this: First, that 
Science be removed from under the ban of 
this official bluff and be allowed to pursue 
its legitimate course in such ways as it 
deems fit. Second, that in return for this 
release (which could surely be enforced if 
the thing came to a legal test), and as a 
condition of its free concession, that the 
Fish and Game Commission, or, more expli- 
citly, your office, be taken into fullest con- 
fidence in all matters involving proposed 
exchange for a cash consideration. Upon 
this basis you would be allowed to pass 
upon the wisdom of such exchange in ac- 
cordance with certain specified rules, and 
these rules would have in mind the authen- 
ticity of the material, the scientific stand- 
ing of the parties concerned, and the just 
claims of conservation. In this way a 
widow might be able to realize on the oolog- 
ical collection which some ardent, but im- 
provident scientific husband has left her as 
a sole legacy; the Museum of Vertebrate 
Zoology might be able to purchase some 
choice material from an impecunious col- 
lector who on these conditions alone could 
spare his prizes and bless himself with 
more; and the plain collector could afford 
to back up some honest swain who thinks 
he has found a gollapoose’s nest and must 
take a day off during harvest if he is to get 
it for you. These things are done every 
season, and in my opinion they are lawfully 
done; but it seems to me it would be a lit- 
tle nicer if the Commission knew all about 
it. 
In considering the just limitation imposed 
by the conservation interest upon the activ- 
ities of the collector, I beg to remind you 
that the destructive effects of egg-collecting 
have been enormously over-rated, and that 
nature’s recuperative powers have been wil- 
