Early this spring I was out in the garden and found a dead bird. I buried it, but noted where it was buried. This week with the help of one of my nieces and some nephews I dug it back up in the hopes of finding the bones, because I like bones and I have kind of been experimenting with making myself a comparative collection. I felt kind of bad though, digging up a burial I had buried. I won't go so far as to say it felt wrong, but it was along those lines. One thing I did learn in my osteology class, when we were dealing primarily with human remains, was that the bones we work with were real people and we must treat them with respect. I dug up the flicker (that's what kind of bird it was) not because I wanted to make Halloween decorations or scare someone. I dug it up to learn. I'm sure that the words: "in the name of science" can not clear all actions, but I think motive is important, and knowledge is a very powerful one. I'm also not saying that people with cow skulls in their front yards are bad. In fact I think they look cool. But it is more of a moral subject than I had thought about previously. So here is my thoughtful but unrepentant picture of the bones we did find of the flicker (I will clean them up later).
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