Editorial 



215 



2^irb=1Lore 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



ContributingEditor.MABELOSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XIX Published August 1,1917 No. 4 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, one dollar a year; outside the 

 United States, one dollar and twenty-five cents, postage paid. 



COPYKIGHTED, I917, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Hand 



The Editor of Bird-Lore has been called 

 to Washington to serve as the Director 

 of the Bureau of Publications of the 

 American Red Cross. The duties of this 

 position leave but a small margin of time 

 for other things, and he therefore trusts 

 that for a time Bird-Lore's correspond- 

 ents and contributors will pardon all delays 

 in acknowledging their communications. 



We regret that circumstances beyond 

 our control have prevented the inclusion 

 of a colored frontispiece in this issue of 

 Bird-Lore. The October number, how- 

 ever, will contain a plate of Swallows; the 

 Martins will be treated in December; the 

 Tanagers in February and April. This 

 will leave only the Shrikes, Waxwings, 

 Larks, Crows and Jays, Blackbirds and 

 Orioles, in all five families, three of them 

 with but one or two species, to complete 

 Bird-Lore's series of colored plates of 

 North American Passeres. This will mean 

 that Bird-Lore has figured in colored 

 drawings, one-half natural size, nearly 

 half of all the birds of North America. 



Bird-Students throughout the West 

 will welcome the appearance of a pocket 

 edition, bound in limp morocco, of 

 Mrs. Bailey's standard 'Handbook of 

 Birds of the Western United States.' The 

 practical working value of the book is 

 greatly increased by its new form. 



We hope that the publication in this issue 

 of Bird-Lore of the occurrence of albino 



birds will not bring us mere records of 

 the observation of abnormally colored 

 birds. Albinism in itself, as we have 

 before remarked in these columns, is 

 by no means noteworthy. It may be 

 manifested by any species, and whatever 

 may be the underlying factors, they 

 express themselves through an absence 

 of pigment and consequent lack of 

 color. 



The unusual, of course, always claims 

 our attention, and the appearance of a 

 white, or partially white Robin, for ex- 

 ample, invariably excites interest and com- 

 ment. This comment, however, is not 

 worthy of record unless it includes some 

 observation on the habits or actions of 

 the bird concerned or of other birds in 

 their relations to it. To illustrate: One 

 of the records in this issue tells of an 

 albino Robin seen in the same locality 

 after an interval of a month. Here the 

 bird's peculiar markings permitted the 

 identification of the individual, always an 

 important matter in field-work. A second 

 record relatse to a white Swallow which 

 other Swallows seemed to chase; and a 

 third describes a partial albino Bronzed 

 Crackle about which other Crackles were 

 'evidently curious.' The facts given 

 in both these cases indicate that the 

 albino birds apparently were recognized 

 by birds of their species but were not 

 accepted as normal; evidence that birds 

 possess a power of discrimination. 



We learn with great regret that Nor- 

 man De Witt Betts, an associate member 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 and a former contributor to Bird-Lore, 

 was killed by lightning on May 21, 191 7, 

 on a ranch in northeastern Utah, in his 

 thirty-seventh year. Mr. Betts' studies 

 in bird-life were made chiefly at St. 

 Louis, Missouri, Boulder, Colorado, and 

 Madison, Wisconsin, localities where he 

 was successively stationed in the employ 

 of the U. S. Forest Service. He left the 

 Service a year ago to become a ranch- 

 man in Uintah County, Utah, a region, 

 where he would doubtless have made 

 field studies of much value. 



