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 7 BULLETIN OF THE COOPER ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. in the case. I believe that most of the writers speak without knowledge, for they certainly fail to present facts. The Rev. Mr. Heuniu- get, however, gies us an array of figures from Davie's Aresis  Egs of North ,4merican ]irds which is very alarming,--to the Rev. Mr. Henninger. (Osprey, Feb. '99-) Does he seriously fear that the taking of 500 Coot's eggs or 9x7 Kentucky Warbler's eggs will endanger these species? Blessed news; let us gather at once 5,000 eggs of Passer domesticus and wipe him from the earth! I do not wish to write anything in defense of Mr. Doric's book; it needs none. Long may it live. What I do wish is to set at rest the mind of the Rev. Mr. Henninger concerning the destruction of cer- tain bird species at the hand of the egg collect- or. He objectg to one man having 94 eggs of Ptychoramphus aleulicus. I have never taken many eggs of this bird myself, but could show anyone where 94 eggs might be taken every day for t.wo weeks and leave several thousand for seed. If I am not mistaken, I helped col- lect "50 eggs of the Guadalupe Petrel in two days," but I can assure the fearful that there were plenty of Petrels' eggs still in the ground. If I tell him of taking oo Shearwaters' eggg in one day, shall I be condemned? Yet there are thousands of Shearwaters' eggs left in that place. The fact that a few men only possess such large series as i2 eggs of the Chuck- will's-widow seems to nmke a lot of difference, to the widows. If everyone collected in big series the poor Chucks might have to try the Flicker's dodge Of laying 7x eggs in 73 days. The Rev. Henninger shows how well he has learned his profession when he mentions an act and leaves his readers to imagine the at- tendant circumstances. 'Tis a common trick of the public speaker but goes not so well in writing. To illustrate what I mean let us take the case of the Guadalupe Petrel. This bird breeds, so far as known, ou.ly on Guadalupe, an uninhabitecl island 200 miles from civiliz- ation. A trip there is expensive and land- iag dangerous. At the time of 'our visit the eggs and nesting of the petrel were almost un- l/nown. The island is over-run with wild do- mestic cats which make a business of catching petrels as the setting birds enter 'and leave their burrows. It is in all probabi:lity only a question of a short time before the cats will have exterminated the birds. In view of these facts I ask if we were not justified in taking fifty eggs iu two days. Circumstances may alter ome of the other cases. As to the wholesale collecting of birds themselves, I cannot believe it is so dangerous as depicted. I have made a little calculation which really surprised myself. Here it is. Let us suppose that each collector in California kills 5,000 birds each year. There are not over o bird and egg collectors in our State so we would haye 5oo,oo birds destroyed each year. Now the area of California is a little over 5o,- ooo square niles, thus giving an anuual de- struction of three birds to each square mile! This, even, is a most exaggerated estimate, for I very much doubt if there are twenty-five col- lectors in California, each of whom destroys annually ,ooo birds or eggs. I have collected in the state for about eight years and have un- der 3,000 skins. The largest private collection I know of here contains little over o,ooo spec- imens. I believe that the taking of birds for com- mercial purposes, the destruction of birds and eggs by boys and the extensive collecting of birds during nesting time, as described in our last BtYL1.ETiN are abuses of liberty which should be condemned and prevented. If we are to study biology in all its branches we must have liberty. As to what is abuse of that liberty each must be his own judge, as he is his own judge of what constitutes the abuse of friendship or of any other civil or personal re- lation. RICHARD C. MCGREGOR. talo ,41to, Cal. AMONG the graduates of the class of '99 at Stanford University, the Cooper Club was well represented. Mr. W. W. Price took his de- gree of Master of Arts in zoology, while Messrs. R. C. McGregor and Ralph Arnold received the degree of B. A. in ethic. and 'geology respectively. Mr. Arnold was hon- ored with the presidency of the class of '99, and has been the leader of the Stanford Man- dolin Club for several years past. WILFRED H. OSGOOD of the Biological Sur- vey and a member of the Cooper Club, left Seattle on May 24 with Dr. L. B. Bishop of New Haven, Conn., and Mr. A. G. Maddren of Stanford University, for Dawson City on a scientific expedition. The party will be gone five months, travelling from'Skaguay to Daw- son City, thence by revenue steamer down the Yukon to St. Michaels. Mammals and. birds will be collected, Mr. Osgood acting as chief naturalist of the expedition.