Page:The peregrine falcon at the eyrie (IA cu31924084757206).pdf/88

 68 makes me anxious not to be confounded with him, as I think the present mania for egg and bird collecting deplorable, considering the difficulties it places in the way of study when so much remains to be learned of the habits of living birds. Minute description of plumage, leading to the discovery of what is called a subspecies, which leads in turn to the slaughter of hundreds of birds in order that those who wish to be considered ornithologists may see their names in print, is one of the saddest features of modern ornithology, while the wholesale meddling with scientific nomenclature has rendered it almost useless as a means of communication with foreigners. Rare birds have no greater enemy than the scientific collector. I was only lately reading an account by an ornithologist of his hunts after Sea Eagles' eggs in Scotland, and it left me wondering whether future generations will consider his complete works any compensation for the extinction of the bird. That grand bird, the Gyr Falcon of Iceland, is now on the very verge of extinction owing to the way it is being harried by ornithologists and collectors employed by wealthy . Reasoned remonstrances are of no avail against this senseless destruction of rare birds, and more and more will become extinct unless the formation of private collections is made illegal. The multiplication of museums is also of doubtful benefit. No town is complete nowadays without a museum, and its curator, of course, desires all the rarest birds to be represented. On my last visit to Chester Museum, one of the best in the kingdom, I found the latest acquisition was an osprey shot in the neighbourhood. Considering that nine-tenths of the visitors do not probably know an osprey from an ostrich, and do not care, I think a museum is the wrong place for a bird which is nearly extinct. Words, however, have as little effect as the sandwich-boards carried about in London imploring women not to wear rare birds' feathers in their hats; but, at any rate, these are some of my reasons why I wish my readers to consider me simply as a bird-lover.