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Bird - Lore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THK AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. IIX Published June 1. 1907 No. 3 



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. CHAPM/ 



Bird-Lore's Motto : 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



To the Editor alone is due the entire blame 

 for the delay in the appearance of this 

 number of Bird-Lore. A voyage to the 

 Southeastern Bahamas consumed double the 

 time allotted to it, and, on returning, a 

 Heron rookery, which under protection has 

 developed conditions creditable to the days 

 of Audubon, proved so alluring that we 

 deliberately ignored the call of editorial 

 duties, confident of the approval of Bird- 

 Lore's readers. 



To this same absence must be charged 

 the sin of a sadly neglected correspondence; 

 and may we beg further indulgence in this 

 connection during the next two months, when 

 field work will take us to the Canadian 

 Northwest ? 



In 'Everybody's Magazine' for June, 

 President Roosevelt, as reported by Edward 

 B. Clark, expresses his indignation that, 

 after all that has been said of their inaccu- 

 racies, the books of W. J. Long should 

 continue to be used in schools for supple- 

 mental reading. 



After exposing some of Mr. Long's 

 errors, Mr. Roosevelt remarks : " The 

 preservation of the useful and beautiful 

 animal and bird life of the country depends 

 largely upon creating in the young an 

 interest in the life of the woods and fields. 

 If the child mind is fed with stories that are 

 false to nature, the children will go to the 

 haunts of the animal only to meet with 

 disappointment. The result will be dis- 

 belief, and the death of interest. The men 



who misinterpret nature and replace fact 

 with fiction, undo the work of those who 

 in the love of nature interpret it aright." 



Is it the undeniable literary charm of 

 Long's books, or the dearth of desirable 

 nature stories, or the activity of his pub- 

 lishers which, in spite of their proved per- 

 niciousness, still keeps them on teachers' 

 lists ? 



In the April number of 'The Nature- 

 study Review,' a writer speaks of the 

 "fascinating tales of the wilderness, as told 

 by Long, and the delightful life-histories of 

 Wabbles the Song Sparrow and Bismark 

 the red squirrel as recorded by Walton the 

 hermit of Gloucester," and couples them 

 with the "works of Burroughs and Tho- 

 reau," a grouping which we believe will 

 make truth-loving ' Oom John ' envy 

 Thoreau his resting-place in Concord's 

 churchyard. 



Discussion of this subject with one of the 

 leading educators of the country brought 

 from him the surprising opinion that in 

 the city, at least, it is of more importance that 

 nature books used in supplemental reading 

 should be interesting than that they should 

 be accurate; it being argued that the im- 

 mediate object of such reading is to arouse 

 the child's curiosity. 



Admitting that few children in our city 

 schools have an opportunity to test the 

 accuracy of the information they receive in 

 regard to animal life, is it desirable that 

 they be given as true that which is known 

 to be false merely because it is interesting ? 



Nature study is designed not only to make 

 the child familiar with the commoner forms 

 of life, but also so to train his powers of 

 observation that he will see more widely 

 and more accurately; and no form of nature 

 study which has not science, and hence 

 truth, for its foundation can be expected to 

 endure. 



The mention of ' Everybody's Magazine ' 

 recalls, by the way, the interesting cover of 

 the April number of this magazine, which 

 depicted a Scarlet Tanager perched amid 

 pussy-willows, a striking and original com- 

 bination of an April flower and a May 

 bird. 



