There is little in Townsend's Warbler that could be deemed socially sensitive. Native Americans are scarcely mentioned, and when they are, it is to express Townsend and Nuttall's interest in them. Some readers might disapprove of Townsend killing birds in order to preserve them, but this was how science worked in his day, and many an exhibit at a museum of natural history would be impossible without samples such his. The work he and Nuttall undertake—they conduct their work with care and sensitivity, wasting nothing—is plainly contrasted with the attitudes of those who would simply exploit the natural world.