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Bird -Lore 



realize the incalculable importance of edu- 

 cation, and are making every effort to 

 secure for the youth of this country op- 

 portunities to learn something of the 

 beauty and value of bird-life which the 

 previous generation lacked. 



We would make no comparison be- 

 tween the Audubon Societies and the 

 Union which would in any way reflect 

 on the work of either. Both have their 

 place, and when their relations are 

 properly understood it will be seen that 

 they stand to each other as preparatory 

 school to college. It is the province of 

 the Audubon societies to arouse interest 

 in the study of birds, in short, to make 

 ornithologists; it is the province of the 

 A. O. U. to enroll them in its member- 

 ship after the school-day period has 

 passed, and sustain their interest through 

 the stimulation which comes from associ- 

 ation with others having kindred tastes. 



The ornithologist who counts success 

 through the number of his 'takes' and 

 'finds' should understand that we are 

 reaching a stage in the study of North 

 American birds where the field-glass is 

 of more importance than the gun, where 

 observations are more needed than col- 

 lections. It is this doctrine which mem- 

 bers of the A. O. U. themselves are try- 

 ing to inculcate in the minds of budding 

 ornithologists (witness their circular issued 

 by the Pennsylvania Audubon Society and 

 published in Bird-Lore for August, iSgg), 

 and to close the ranks of the Union to 

 what, in effect, are their own pupils, 

 would be obviously too inconsistent to be 

 worthy of a moment's consideration. 



Robbed of its misconception of the 

 aims of the Audubonists, and we confess 

 to a certain sympathy with the plea of 

 the writer of the letter we have quoted 

 from for an additional class of members 

 in the A. O. U. The suggestion to in- 

 crease the limit of active membership 

 from fifty to sixty or seventy-five, put 

 forth by another correspondent of ' The 

 Condor' seems to us to be unwarranted 



by e.xisting conditions. The writer men- 

 tioned thinks that California should be 

 better represented on the active list, but 

 we find that it already possesses four 

 active members, or more than any other 

 state except Massachusetts and New York 

 and the District of Columbia. However, 

 he admits that among the ninety mem- 

 bers of the Cooper Ornithological Club 

 of California there are only "two, pos- 

 sibly three, who would fill the require- 

 ments" demanded of candidates for active 

 membership. To this number average 

 current opinion would add probably four 

 or five candidates from the East, making 

 a total number of eight possible claim- 

 ants for the four vacancies in the active 

 list, certainly not a too severe competi- 

 tion for " the highest honor to which any 

 American Ornithologist, can aspire." 



The proposal to make two classes of 

 associate members, on the contrary, has 

 much in its favor. When the Union was 

 organized there was far less interest 

 in the study of birds than at present, 

 and the list of associate members was 

 largely composed of amateur ornitholo- 

 gists, any one of whom might eventually 

 become a candidate for active member- 

 ship. But with the greatly increased 

 popularity of ornithology there has arisen 

 a class of students who, while they do 

 not aspire to the rank of active member- 

 ship, are still desirous of being connected 

 with the Union, and between them and 

 the associates, whose ambition it is to 

 become active members, a distinction 

 might, with perfect justice, be made by 

 the creation of a class of senior associates 

 limited to one hundred in number. 



But, in any event, let us regard with 

 equal fairness the technical ornithologist 

 absorbed in his minute study of speci- 

 mens and his disentanglements of nom- 

 enclatural snarls, and the ardent bird- 

 protectionist who perhaps can not name 

 a dozen birds correctly. Both are sin- 

 cere, both are necessary, and a mutual 

 understanding of each other's aims will, 

 we are sure, lead to mutual respect. 



