268 Wild Bird Guests 



tops but by quiet, modest ornithologists, who sit 

 in their laboratories and whose names are seldom 

 seen in the newspapers. Other men, "on the 

 firing line, " do wonderfully effective work for the 

 cause of wild life conservation, but sometimes 

 they do not seem to realize that this work is 

 made possible, not so much by the noise of their 

 own big guns, as by the ammunition supplied to 

 them by the scientific men who work without 

 making any noise at all. There are literally 

 thousands of splendid men and women working 

 for the protection of our wild birds and there 

 will soon be many thousands more, and they 

 should know that the backbone of this bird 

 conservation movement is made up chiefly of the 

 scientific members of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union, some of whom founded the original 

 Audubon Society, and who by patient, unselfish 

 toil through many years have laid the foundation 

 for the equally important but far more spec- 

 tacular work being done by others who are 

 oftener in the public eye. 



