Are you sure you didn't mean to say "Roberta, the longspuress"?
wjansen
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On Tue, 12 Dec 1995, Eugene Hunn wrote:

> I take it you're referring to Robert, the longspur.
>
> Gene.
>
> On Tue, 12 Dec 1995, Kelly Cassidy wrote:
>
> > 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
> >
>