automatic label setting in Axes.add_* methods?

Hi,

add_line method sets label to something like "_line1" if not set.

def add_line(self, line):

        if not line.get_label():
            line.set_label('_line%d'%len(self.lines))

add_collection sets label to "collection1" if not set.

def add_collection(self, collection, autolim=True):

        label = collection.get_label()
        if not label:
            collection.set_label('collection%d'%len(self.collections))

add_patch does nothing.

Can someone enlighten me why add_line and add_collection method sets the label?

Actually, my issue here is that collections without empty label show
up in the legend as "collection1" etc., instead of being ignored.

Regards,

-JJ