Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices , fyc. 373 
loftier sisters have been haunted thus, yet oology, that modest 
offshoot of embryology, might have hoped to escape. On her 
behalf I must crave permission to enter a protest against the 
treatment to which she has been exposed. I could say much 
on the injudicious and reckless course of many of her sincere 
friends, whose free handling of many a waning species contrasts 
painfully with their tender manipulation of the eggs “ in situ " 
(in their cabinet), whose bribes imperil the continuance in our 
island of the royal Eagle, and corrupt the morals of the once- 
faithful guardians of the Scottish forests. It is indeed painful 
to see the generous efforts of princely proprietors to preserve the 
last relics of a royal race thus baffled. One almost shudders 
at the ruthlessness with which a scientific friend can relate 
the feat of his having “ harried " two Golden Eagle nests on the 
same day. While I fully admit the interest and value of an 
indigenous collection, and believe that the value of oology, as 
a branch of ornithic embryology, in determining the divisions of 
genera and the affinities of species, is scarcely yet sufficiently 
acknowledged by naturalists, I must denounce as not only use¬ 
less, but mischievous, the inordinate craving after a long series 
of British-taken specimens of our rarer birds. We all deprecate 
the achievements of the gunner who stalks behind a hedge after 
every rare bird in his neighbourhood, and then chronicles his 
exploits in the pages of the ( Zoologist/ Is the indefatigable 
“ British-egg " collector a less mischievous depredator ? 
I can only hope that Mr. Eenwick, who has cast his protecting 
arms round the grilse, will, when he has secured to our fish- 
spawn the rest he promises on its own river-bed, devote his 
kindly sympathies to the homes of our native birds. I can fully 
comprehend, for I participate myself in the enthusiasm of the 
friend who exclaimed, on being asked his opinion of a somewhat 
variable egg, “ I do not profess to understand an Eagle's or 
an Osprey's egg unless I see a drawerfulbut can we not, 
when the identity of the species is indisputable, content our¬ 
selves with supplying our series from regions where there are 
enough and to spare ? 
Enough as to the indiscreet zeal of the true naturalist. There 
is another and larger class, the mere collectors, who gather eggs 
