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THE CONDOR VoL XVlI 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 h?s 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 bf 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 treadeth 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 (sitpposeg) prohibitioix 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 mudcures 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 release (which could surely be enforced the thing came to a legal test), and as 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 ?vith 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 oblog- 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 ?he 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-