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Bird - Lore 



25irti=1lore 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIF.TIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Contributing Editor, MABELOSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XVII Published April 1, 1915 No. 2 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, CanaiHand Mexico, twenty cents 

 a number, one dollar a year, postage paid. 



COPYRIGHTED. 1915, BY FKANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A 'Bird in the Bush Is W'orlh Two in the Band 



We particularly call the attention of 

 our readers to the review on a preceding 

 page of the 'Preliminary Census of Birds 

 of the United States' and to the call of 

 the Biological Survey for volunteer 

 observers to carry on this important work. 



Bird-Lore for June will publish an 

 especially interesting and valuable arti- 

 cle by Miss E. L. Turner on 'Bird Photog- 

 raphy for Women.' As the leading 

 woman bird-photographer in England — 

 indeed we may say in the world — Miss 

 Turner is in a position to write with 

 authority. That she practises what she 

 preaches will be fully proven by the 

 photographs accompanying her article. 



The contents of 'A Photographer's 

 Game Bag,' as it is pictorially displayed in 

 'Country Life in America,' for February, 

 1915, is a faunal phenomenon of the first 

 magnitude. It contains, for example, a 

 "flash-light" of a Barn Owl which we are 

 led to believe was made in the Everglades 

 of Florida. The author, however, fails 

 to tell us how he accomplished the unpre- 

 cedented feat of photographing porcu- 

 pines in the Everglades, animals, which, so 

 far as we are aware, are unknown in 

 nature nearer Florida than the mountains 

 of Pennsylvania or West Virginia. 



It is true that no claim is made of the 

 occurrence of these animals in the Ever- 

 glades, but, as the 'Game Bag' also con- 

 tained a photograph of a pair of porcu- 



pines which are evidently sitting on the 

 identical limb on which the Barn Owl of 

 the 'Everglades' was perched and before 

 essentially the same background (includ- 

 ing a palm leaf!) shown in the Barn Owl 

 photograph, we can only infer that both 

 pictures were made in the same place. 

 The case is further complicated by the 

 photograph of an iguana posing if not on 

 the same limb, at least before the same 

 background as that used in the Barn Owl 

 and porcupine pictures. No locality is 

 given for this choice bit of photographic 

 'game' but we are told that the species 

 "in the photograph is called the Chinese 

 dragon iguana to distinguish it from the 

 ordinary variety found in the island [sic] 

 of Nassau and throughout Mexico and 

 Central America!" 



Comment is unnecessary, but we must 

 express our surprise that a magazine 

 which includes a 'Nature' Department 

 and which has already had several simi- 

 larly humiliating experiences, can be so 

 easily imposed on. 



In the same issue of 'Country Life' 

 photographs by Finley and Job are pub- 

 lished, and we feel that these eminently 

 reputable naturalist-photographers should 

 protest at an association so well designed 

 to bring discredit on their profession. 



'Bird Life as a Community Asset' is 

 the suggestive title of a contribution 

 which Mr. Joseph Grinnell makes to the 

 first issue (October, 1914) of the quarterly 

 publication of the California Fish and 

 Game Commission. Mr. Grinnell main- 

 tains that "Our bird life is a valuable 

 public asset and deserving sane considera- 

 tion as such," and it is the sane considera- 

 tion with which he treats his subject that 

 carries conviction of the truth of his 

 arguments. House cats and English Spar- 

 rows he considers the most serious enemies 

 with which our birds are confronted. 

 Following these in the order named he 

 ranks reclamation and cultivation of 

 wild lands, gunners, nest- robbing "by 

 the uninstructed small boy," and killing 

 for commercial purposes, whether for food 

 or plumage. 



