Posted by Robert Hill on December 12, 2002 at 16:14:00 from 195.92.168.167 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Re: Egg-collecting posted by Astronomer_Guy on December 10, 2002 at 21:52:20:
Today's issue (officially dated 14 December) of New Scientist contains
an interview with David Attenborough, which includes the following exchange:
Q: If you were growing up now, you wouldn't legally be able to collect
things like birds' eggs in the same way. Does that bother you?
A: I think it's a great pity. I don't deny the need to protect
flowers or birds or whatever. But as a boy I collected birds' eggs,
which was perfectly legal then, and we had a code of ethics. You knew
when it was OK to collect an egg as you knew the female would lay
another. So I learned a lot about birds, where they build nests, how
they lay their eggs and so on. All the great naturalists did the same.
Look at Darwin, who had a great passion for beetles and was a mad
collector of natural history.