Editorial 



361 



A Bi-Monlhly Mauiwiiie 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUHON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Contributine; Editor, MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol, XIV Published December 1. 1912 No. 6 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 

 Price in the United States. Cinada aiui Mexico, twenty cents 

 I number, one dollar a year, postage paid. 



OOrr RIGHTED, t9 13, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Band 



Although the report of the Treasurer 

 of the National Association of Audubon 

 Societies shows a slight deficit, it is, 

 nevertheless, the most encouraging docu- 

 ment which the occupant of that office 

 has presented. It appears that the income 

 of the Association for the year ending in 

 October, 191 2, reached nearly $60,000, 

 or over 50 per cent more than that of the 

 preceding year, and these figures fairly 

 express the increased activities of the 

 Society during the period in question. 



The legislative and warden work have 

 been zealously carried forward, but it is 

 in the field of education that the greatest 

 advance has been made. Here two liberal 

 donations have enabled the Association 

 to place sets of colored plates, outlines 

 for coloring, and educational leaflets in 

 the hands of 28,000 children, each of whom 

 had expressed a desire for them by the 

 payment of ten cents, while the 1,600 

 teachers in whose classes these children 

 were enrolled were supplied with leaflets 

 and with Bird-Lore. By thus cooperating 

 with an established school system, a 

 maximum result is obtained at a minimum 

 cost — less than fifty cents per pupil. 



Even if this phase of Audubon work be 

 not extended, the fact that every year 

 nearly 30,000 children are given elemen- 

 tary instruction in the value and beauty 

 of bird-life is in itself an achievement 

 which eventually must exert a widespread 

 influence in our attitude toward birds; 

 and once this fact is realized, we believe 



that the fund available for this purpose 

 will be so increased that the Society can 

 extend its work to every part of the 

 country. 



One far-seeing patron of the Associa- 

 tion has contributed a fund for use in 

 Alaska, wisely realizing that the time to 

 arouse an interest in one's feathered 

 neighbors is while we still have them with 

 us. It is through the generosity of this 

 donor that, during the coming Near, 

 BiKD-LoRE will be enabled to [)resent its 

 readers with a series of colored plates by 

 Allan Brooks, the first of which, illus: ra- 

 ting the Willow Ptarmigan, appears in 

 this issue. The text forming the educa- 

 tional leaflet accompanying these plates 

 will be prepared by ornithologists who by 

 actual field experience are qualified to 

 write of the bird illustrated, and the 

 leaflets therefore may be considered 

 authentic biographies of real ornithological 

 value. Joseph Grinnell, for example, 

 writes of the Ptarmigan; while E. W. 

 Nelson will treat the Emperor Goose, and 

 Dr. C. W. Townsend the Crested Auklet. 



Meanwhile, the regular series of educa- 

 tional leaflets, with plates by Horsfall, 

 will be continued, the RufTed Grouse, Green 

 Heron, Brown Thrasher, and Catbird 

 being among the species which will be 

 treated during the year. Here, also, it is 

 proposed to have the text equal the plates 

 in value, and we shall thus in time have 

 issued a series of adequately illustrated 

 biographies of our common birds. 



The current issue of Bird-Lore adds 

 two chapters to the growing volume which 

 records successful attempts to overcome 

 the shyness of birds by winning their con- 

 fidence. That Gulls, particularly hungry 

 Gulls, should quickly learn to trust the 

 hand which feeds them is doubtless to be 

 expected, and many instances of their 

 establishing more or less friendly relation- 

 ships with their human hosts are on 

 record; but that a bird so shy and sus- 

 picious as the Wild Turkey should in a 

 short tirpe become semi-domesticated 

 about a home, in a region where the natural 

 food suppl\' is so abundant that it is in no 



