Editorial 



315 



i&trti itore 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



ContributinnKditor.MABKL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XV Published October 1, 1913 No. 5 



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 Price in Ihe United Stales. Canada ami Mexico, twenty cents 

 a number, one dollar a year, postage paid. 



COPYRIGHTFD, 1913. BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Hand 



The Thirty-first Annual Congress of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union will be 

 held at the .\merican Museum of Natural 

 History, November 11-13, 1913. Xo one 

 who ever attends an A. O. U. meeting is 

 absent from succeeding ones if he can 

 possibly be present. These annual re- 

 unions are as different from the gatherings 

 of other scientific societies as birds are 

 from other forms of life. They are per- 

 vaded by an atmosphere of enthusiasm 

 and good-fellowship which, merely from 

 a social point of view, makes them in the 

 highest degree enjoyable, while the oppor- 

 tunities they afford for the acquisition of 

 information in every department of 

 ornithology are almost as wide as our 

 knowledge of birds. 



Great libraries and collections are 

 available, papers on a wide variety of 

 ornithological subjects are read and dis- 

 cussed, and workers from many fields may 

 be appealed to for advice or information. 

 Indeed, the friendships formed at these 

 A. O. U. congresses, while they have had 

 no record in official program or report, have 

 exerted no small influence on the progress 

 of ornithology in America. 



The Congress this year promises to be 

 of e.xceptional interest. As a central point, 

 New York usually draws a large attend- 

 ance. Several of the members who expect 

 to be present have but lately returned 

 from distant lands laden with specimens, 

 photographs, information and experiences 

 of the highest value and interest. One 



u lio has passed a year in the Antarctic will 

 lia\c a talc to tell such as even regular 

 alUndants of the A. O. U. have rarely 

 laard. Other papers, treating of more 

 familiar birds, will make a more direct, and 

 possibly even a stronger api)eal. Indeed, 

 by far the most valuable and interesting 

 study presented at the last .V. O. U. 

 Congress had for its subject one of our 

 commonest species. 



The hotel headquarters at the "Kndi- 

 cott," on Eighty-first street, facing the 

 Museum square, are convenient and the 

 rates reasonable. The annual subscrip- 

 tion dinner will be held at this hotel, while 

 the Linna;an Society will entertain the 

 visiting members daily at luncheon. An 

 informal e\-ening recc|)tion will probably 

 be held in the laboratories of the Museum's 

 department of ornithology, giving an 

 opportunity to examine the large acces- 

 sories which have lately been made to the 

 study collections of the Museum, as well 

 as to those of several private collections 

 which are deposited there. Arrangements 

 will doubtless also be made for special 

 visits to the New York Zoological Park, 

 which now contains the finest aviary in 

 the world, and to the New York Aquarium. 

 So one might continue to detail the 

 attractions which make up an A. O. U. 

 program and still miss the most important 

 part of every A. O. U. meeting, if he failed 

 to mention the stimulating influences of 

 contact with others of kindred tastes. In 

 spite of an ever-increasing number of 

 bird students, the local ornithologist is 

 generally more or less isolated from others 

 of his kind with whom he may exchange 

 experiences. Consequently, when once at 

 least each year he finds himself in a group 

 of a hundred or more persons, everyone of 

 whom is just as keen an "observer" as he 

 is, the cumulative effect of such sympa- 

 thetic association is as exciting as a May 

 migration "wave." 



Every bird student should seek to ally 

 himself with this organization, to which he 

 owes more than he realizes. Information 

 in regard to proposals for membership may 

 be obtained from J. Dwight, Jr., Treas., 

 134 West 71st St., New York City. 



