Doubtless every beginner looks upon the formation of a collection as necessarily the first step on the ornithological ladder; and probably a collection of eggs is preferred to a collection of birds, because the specimens can be prepared much more readily.
Soon you meet complaints from well meaning persons who object to robbing birds' nests, and you reply that you are collecting for scientific purposes. Very good; science has need of you all, but do you know what scientific ornithology--real ornithology--is?
Are you not influenced, to some extent, at least, by "oölogical" magazines and dealers' price-lists of eggs, from which you learn that it is important to secure _series of sets_,--which means hundreds and thousands of eggs,--and wherein you also learn the market price of this or that egg, and value your specimens accordingly,--just as you do your postage stamps? This is not science, and the men who advocate this sort of collecting, and who have the largest collections of eggs, rarely contribute anything to our knowledge of birds, and are not advancing the science of ornithology.
If you must have a collection, a few sets of eggs (often a single set) of each species of bird will answer all your purposes. There is nothing to be gained by the collecting of a series, except the extermination of the birds, which is surely not your object.
On the other hand, there is a vast amount of bird work that you can do to help the science of ornithology and gain a reputation for yourself.
There are hundreds of facts regarding the distribution of birds, their habits, etc., which are still unknown, and you should make it your aim to become an authority on the birds of your region, and keep records of all your observations as to migration, habits, abundance, etc. You will find ample opportunity for work, as every year will bring to light new facts, and the more you contribute to our knowledge of the birds the more you will see what an insignificant matter the formation of an egg collection is in comparison with real ornithology.
In the case of birds, it is justifiable to shoot specimens which are new to you for purposes of identification, but you should make the best use of the bird _before_ you kill it, so that it will not be necessary to shoot more of the same kind in order to tell what they are. Your aim should be to learn to recognize birds at sight and by their notes, and you will find you will learn more of value by a study of the living bird than by collecting skins.