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 Sept., 1915 COMMUNICATIONS 211 fully underestimated. Save in th vicinity of the large cities and in the case of certain rare species, upon which hostile attention may be focussed by very reason of their rarity, the economic status of bird-life in California would not be visibly affected were there ten times the present number of licensed collectors. A thousand such col- lectors working diligently throughout the season would not exact a tell upon bird-life one per centurn as great as that now being sacrificed annually to the activities of the California Jay. If every collector killed ten Jays per season, his own o/logical activi- ties would be more than compensated there- by. Moreover, Nature has already made lib- eral allowances for wasted effort in repro- duction. "Try again" is the rule rather than the exception throughout this realm. I once knew of a Western Bluebird (not on my own premises) which, in attempting to raise a family where its presence was not wel- come, provided six successive nests of six eggs each in one season. This year I noted two Blue Jays which built new nests and completed second sets of five eggs each within thirteen days after being deprived of their first clutches. A Shrike under sim- ilar circumstances showed up with a nest of five eggs on the tenth day after being robbed. These facts are not such as to elicit tears from well-balanced natures. But there are unquestionably certain spe- cies of birds whose existence is threatened not alone by wanton gunfire, but by the col- lector. In endeavoring to protect such spe- cies the Commission has already adopted an enlightened policy of restriction. The speci- fic reservations made have been just ones, and all that remains to do is to enforce this policy rigorously. I am sorry to say that collectors themselves have not always been fair in the observance of these require- ments. In particular, I happen to know that the Golden Eagle is being robbed unmerci- fully, and that there has been a strong de- cline in its numbers and an attendant failure to breed within recent years. Collectors are not solely at fault, for every wastrel with a gun assaults these splendid birds. Yet, at the risk of regrettable "red tape", I would exact from every party applying for a re- issue of the license an ailavit that he had not molested any of the contraband species. When (if ever) certain of these species had sufficiently recovered, I would grant permission to each collector to take, in per- son, one, and only one, set of such species, in order that his collection might be com- plete. In like manner I believe that there are many other species which require partial protection, and I think that such restriction would be decently observed, if the collector were allowed to take just one set of such species. I would respectfully recommend that the following species be now placed in such a category. American Egret Snowy Egret White-faced Glossy Ibis ledhead Canada Goose California Black lail Black Oystercatcher Least Tern In conclusion, allow me to say just a word in defense of egg-collecting itself. There is, of course, no use in pulling a long face about it and trying to cover up the fun under a smudge of Latinity. The egg- collector is out for a good time, just as the sportsman is, or the camerist, or the opera- glass naturalist (may his, or her, tribe in- crease!). But because the pursuit of cer- tain ends is fascinating or enjoyable in itself, it does not necessarily follow that those ends are frivolous. Even though we grant that some egg-collectors have looked upon their trophies much as they might upon so many buttons or marbles or medals, it still remains true that o/logy has been the wet-nurse of ornithologists. Her stimu- lations, her youthful ardors, her ecstacies, her revelations, her hard-won trophies, have given us such men as Newton, Coues, Baird, Merriam, and Ridgway, all peers of the realm in Science; besides an innumerable host of honored names, Nelson, Bendire, Goss, Brewster, Fisher, Grinnell, Mailliard, Dresser, Rothschild, Sclater, Hume, See- bohm, Tristram,--to mention only a few at haphazard. These men fed on birds' eggs, and howsoever they may have turned to other meat in later years, they owe the very fashion of their scientific manhood to such youthful fare. That the younger ranks of ornithology are deplorably thin at pres- ent is due, I solemnly believe, in large measure to the diffusion of a deadly gas, a compound of misapprehension, intolerance, and suspicion, which has choked the ave- nues of youth's wholesome activities. Moreover, the real task of o/logy is only well begun. Extensive /aaterial has been assembled, but we have only begun to real- ize that in the egg, as measured by its ex- ternal characters, we have the most stable, or conservative, element in the interpreta- tion ,of the ancestral history of the bird. In comparative o/logy we have a sharp, a still almost unused, instrument of attack in the