Ed/forial 



297 



25irb=1Lore 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 



Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Contributing Editor, MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XVII Published August 1, 1915 No. 4 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States. Canada and Mexico, twenty cents 

 a number, one dollar a year, postage paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1915, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Busk Is Worth Two in the Band 



A Visit to 'Birdcraft Sanctuary' has 

 so impressed us with its possibilities that 

 we cannot resist the impulse to add a 

 word to the account of this unique under- 

 taking which Mrs. Wright gives on a pre- 

 ceding page While this sanctuary has 

 been developed primarily as a refuge for 

 birds, a local museum, and a home for the 

 State Audubon Society, it is chiefly 

 valuable, to our mind, as an object lesson 

 in conservation and museum methods. 



As a 'museum man,' we have had pretty 

 constantly before us for the past twenty- 

 five years the problem of conveying a 

 knowledge of bird-life to the public 

 through the exhibition of specimens. In 

 the light of this experience, we do not 

 hesitate to say that, in its own field of 

 local bird-life, Birdcraft Sanctuary prom- 

 ises to render a greater and more effective 

 return for the capital invested than can be 

 shown by any museum in this country. 

 One cannot say by any similar institution, 

 for we know of none like it. 



Combined with a museum, which con- 

 tains an exhibit designed to interest the 

 casual observer by its attractiveness, as 

 well as to fill the wants of the student, we 

 have an outdoor aviary, walled only by a 

 protecting fence and roofed by the sky, 

 where many of the birds examined in the 

 museum cases may be seen and heard in a 

 series of natural 'Habitat Groups,' which 

 no preparator may hope to equal. And 

 both indoor and outdoor exhibits are 



under the constant care of a Curator- 



Warden ready to supply information in a 

 way with which no printed label can ever 

 compete, — so much more convincing is 

 the spoken than the written word. 



Ten acres cannot harbor many birds nor 

 a little museum in the country be seen by a 

 large number of people — as figures go 

 now-a-days — but the idea which they 

 embody can reach to the ends of the 

 earth. So we repeat our belief that Bird- 

 craft Sanctuary will eventually give 

 refuge to birds on many thousands of 

 acres, and a knowledge of the beauty and 

 value of bird-life to many generations of 

 bird students. 



Dr. Arthur A. Allen has been made 

 .\ssistant Professor of Ornithology in the 

 State College of Agriculture at Cornell. 

 This is virtually a new department, and 

 its formation under Dr. Allen's charge 

 is not only a tribute to his ability, but also 

 a significant recognition of the growing 

 demand for technical instruction in 

 ornithology. The economic importance 

 of birds having been demonstrated, 

 some knowledge of them has become an 

 essential part of the equipment of the 

 agriculturist and forester; while the study 

 of the bird in relation to its environment, 

 including other organisms, as Dr. Allen 

 has himself well shown, offers an excep- 

 tionally profitable field for the ecologist. 



Once an ornithologist always an 

 ornithologist.* Colonel Roosevelt's first 

 published article was on birds, t and his 

 latest journey was made to study the 

 birds of certain islands off the coast of 

 Louisiana, which he himself when Presi- 

 dent, had set aside as Federal Bird Reser- 

 vations. Colonel Roosevelt was accom- 

 panied by Mr. H. K. Job as photographer 

 and representative of the National .\sso- 

 ciation of Audubon Societies, and a fully 

 illustrated account of his experiences and 

 impressions will, in due time, be published 

 in Scribner's Magazine. 



*An attempt to define some of the characteris- 

 tics of an ornithologist will be found on p. 277 of 

 this issue. 



tNotes on Some of the Bircjs of Oyster Bay. 

 1879. 



