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Bird - Lore 



iSirti Eore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. 1 



FEBRUARY, 1899 



No. 1 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES. 



Price in tlie United States, Canada, and Mexico, 

 twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, post- 

 age paid. 



Subscriptions may be sent to the Publishers, at 

 Harrisburg, Pa., 66 Fifth avenue, New York City, 

 ■or to the Editor, at Englewood, New Jersey. 



Price in all countries in the International Postal 

 Union, twenty-five cents a number, one dollar and 

 n quarter a year, postage paid. Foreign agents, 

 Macmillan and Company, Ltd., London. 



Manuscripts for publication, books, etc., for re- 

 view, should be sent to the Editor at Englewood, 

 New Jersey. 



Advertisements should be sent to the Pub- 

 lishers at 66 Fifth avenue, New York City. 



COPYKIGHTED, 1899, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 



During the past six years New York and 

 Boston publishers have sold over 70,000 

 text-books on birds, and the ranks of bird 

 students are constantly growing. With 

 this phenomenal and steadily increasing 

 interest in bird-studies, there has arisen 

 a widespread demand for a popular jour- 

 nal of ornithology which should be ad- 

 dressed to observers rather than to col- 

 lectors of birds, or, in short, to those who 

 study " Ijirds through an opera-glass." 



The need of such a journal has also 

 been felt by the Audubon societies, and 

 in concluding his report for the year 

 1898, Mr. Witmer Stone, chairman of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union's Com- 

 mittee on Bird Protection, remarks on 

 the necessity of a "magazine devoted to 

 popular ornithology which could serve as 

 an organ for the various societies and 

 keep the members in touch with their 

 work. All societies which have reached 

 a membership of several thousand realize 

 that it is impossible to communicate with 

 their members more than once or twice a 

 year, owing to the cost of postage, and 

 the success of the societies depends 

 largely upon keeping in communication 

 ^vith their members." 



It is to supply this want of bird stu- 

 dents and bird protectors that Bird-Lore 

 has been established. On its behalf we 

 promise to spare no effort to make it all 

 that the most ardent bird student could 

 desire, and, in the event of our success, 

 we would appeal to all bird-lovers for 

 such support as we may be deemed 

 worthy to receive. 



We have issued a ' Prospectus, ' setting 

 forth in part the aims of Bird-Lore, and 

 as a matter of permanent record, we enter 

 its substance here. It stated that Bird- 

 Lore would attempt to fill a place in the 

 journalistic world similar to that occupied 

 by the works of Burroughs, Torrey, Dr. 

 van Dyke, Mrs. Miller, and others in the 

 domain of books. This is a high standard, 

 but our belief that it will be reached will 

 doubtless be shared when we announce 

 that, with one or two exceptions, every 

 prominent American writer on birds in 

 nature has promised to contribute to 

 Bird-Lore during the coming year. The 

 list of contributors includes the authors 

 just mentioned, Mabel Osgood Wright, 

 Annie Trumbull Slosson, Florence A. 

 Merriam, J. A. Allen, William Brewster, 

 Henry Nehrling, Ernest Seton Thomp- 

 son, Otto Widmann, and numerous other 

 students of bird-life. 



The Audubon Department, under Mrs. 

 Wright's care, will be a particularly attrac- 

 tive feature of the magazine, one which, 

 we trust, is destined to exert a wide influ- 

 ence in advancing the cause of bird-pro- 

 tection. 



The illustrations will consist of half- 

 tone reproductions of birds and their 

 nests from nature, and on the basis of 

 material already in hand, we can assure 

 our readers that, whether judged separately 

 or as a whole, this volume of Bird-Lore 

 will contain the best photographs of wild 

 birds which have as yet been published in 

 this country. 



At present Bird-Lore will contain from 

 thirty-two to forty pages, but should our 

 efforts to produce a magazine on the lines 

 indicated be appreciated, we trust that the 

 near future will witness a material in- 

 crease in the size of each number. 



