Some have argued that catching and sexing the CC Longspur is a 'game'
and would only be done to satisfy one's curiosity. You might as well
argue that all of science is a game. Scientists make a profession of
solving puzzles. If it's of no scientific value to learn the sex of
this longspur, then it's of no value to know the sex of any longspur.
Now, that does not mean I condone cruelty in the name of science. (We
botanists normally have the freedom to handily sidestep that issue.)
However, I would not consider netting a bird, doing measurements for
five minutes, and releasing it, to be the height of cruelty. Nor, for
that matter, would a quick death for a museum specimen be so awful.
Few birds die of old age; few even have a greater than 20% survival in
their first year.

It seems to me that this issue has become an issue because this bird
has become so personalized. As Bernt Heinrich (sp?) might phrase it,
(see 'One Man's Owl'), this longspur has become more than the
'statistical' bird; it has become Tweeter's bird.

Kelly Cassidy
Wa Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Univ of Washington,
Seattle, WA 98195