Bird - Lore 



A Bi-monthly Maerazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFPICIXL ORGAN OF THH AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. IX 



Published April 



1907 



No. 2 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

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

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, I907, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush is IVorth Two in the Hand 



The last issue of 'The Warbler' contains 

 the unwelcome news that this publication 

 has been discontinued. Mr. Childs has 

 published some excellent material in this 

 magazine, and we regret to see that his 

 enterprise has not been accorded the support 

 it deserves. 



This makes the third journal wholly or 

 in part devoted to birds, which has sus- 

 pended publication within a year, 'The 

 Warbler' being preceded by 'American 

 Ornithology' and 'Our Animal Friends." 

 All merited a better fate; for we believe 

 that they came to their end not through 

 failure on the part of their editors to meet 

 the demands of their readers. 



Are we to infer, then, that the demise of 

 these periodicals indicates a decreased inter- 

 est in bird study on the part of the public 

 to which they catered? Personally, we 

 should not hesitate to reply to this question 

 with an emphatic "No," and we base our 

 answer on the experiences of an unusually 

 active lecture season which has brought us 

 in contact with the bird-loving public in 

 many and widely separated districts, on our 

 knowledge of the sales of bird books, and 

 on the ever-widening field of Audubon 

 educational work. 



Why, then, have the magazines mentioned 

 been forced to suspend publication? Doubt- 

 less they have not been "forced" to suspend, 

 but probably they have been discontinued 

 because they have not met with the success 

 their originators anticipated. 



Their failure is not to be attributed to loss 



of interest on the part of the public, but 

 rather to the fact that no ornithological 

 magazine has ever secured a circulation large 

 enough to assure it the patronage of adver- 

 tisers, and without advertising the most pros- 

 perous magazine of the day could not exist 

 as a profitable proposition. 



Whether a sufficient number of possible 

 subscribers exist to make a bird magazine 

 profitable, from a commercial point of view, 

 is open to question, but assuredly the means 

 has not as yet been devised for bringing 

 such a magazine to their attention. General 

 advertising scores too many misses for each 

 hit made to make it profitable. Circulars 

 rarely seem to reach the mark, and if the 

 publisher cannot secure the cooperation of 

 his readers, he may be assured a handsome 

 deficit at the end of the year. 



The Audubon education work to which 

 reference was made above is destined to ex- 

 ert an influence which only those intimately 

 concerned with its development appreciate. 

 When Mr. Willcox endowed the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies, bird- 

 lovers doubtless thought of the numerous 

 practical ways in which the resulting income 

 could be employed to protect birds, but few 

 doubtless realize the far-reaching influence 

 the expenditure of a portion of this income 

 for free Educational Leaflets will have on 

 the future of North American ornithology. 

 As long as this sum will supply the demand, 

 no teacher or pupil need lack first-class bird 

 literature, and the thousands and hundreds 

 of thousands of these little monographs, with 

 their attractively colored plates should reach, 

 an audience forever deaf to the publisher 

 who has profit in mind. 



A WORD of explanation for the unfortunate 

 delay in the appearance of 'The Warbler 

 Book' is due the many inquirers who were 

 led to expect its publication in February. 

 Its tardiness is due to that 'congestion of 

 trade' of which we hear so much in other 

 branches of commerce. Paper that had been 

 l)romised early in January was not delivered 

 a month later and, as a result, the efforts of 

 author and printer to be prompt, went for 

 naught. 



