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Bird- Lore 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



ContributinsrEditor.MABELOSGOOD WRIGHT 



Publislied by D, APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XVII Published December 1, 3915 No. 6 



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 Bush Is Worth Two in the Band 



The Supreme Court of the United 

 States now has under consideration argu- 

 ments for and against the constitutionality 

 of the Federal Migratory Bird Law. 

 Whatever may be its decision, nothing can 

 rob us of the knowledge, gained while the 

 law was in force, of the inestimable value 

 of this measure. To return now to state 

 laws, with their vicious exceptions and 

 special privileges designed in the interests 

 of this faction and that section, with small 

 consideration for the fundamentals of 

 true conservation, would be so great a 

 backward step that we are convinced 

 every true protectionist would rise in 

 rebellion against it. 



The economic necessity, scientific reason- 

 ableness, and broad legal justness of a law 

 based on a nation-wide knowledge of the 

 present and future demands of bird protec- 

 tion are beyond dispute; and if the consti- 

 tution of these United States denies Citizen 

 Bird the rights we all admit he deserves, 

 let us change the constitution ! 



We commend to every reader of Bird- 

 Lore Mr. Pearson's Annual Report as 

 Secretary of the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies, published in this 

 issue. During a year of much financial 

 stress, when exceptional demands have 

 caused more than one humane or philan- 

 thropic organization to close its doors or 

 curtail its activities, the National Asso- 

 ciation has had the most successful year 

 in its history. An income exceeding that 



of any previous year has permitted it not 

 only to maintain and increase already 

 established lines of work, but also to enter 

 new fields. 



Over 152,000 pupils, under more than 

 7,000 teachers, were enrolled in the junior 

 classes; and the far-reaching importance 

 of this branch of the Association's labors 

 has so commended itself to the superin- 

 tendents of education in some of our largest 

 states that their future cooperation is 

 assured. The Association has supplied 

 teachers of ornithology to various summer 

 schools throughout the country, and the 

 opportunity for the development of this 

 kind of affiliation with other institutions 

 is limited only by our ability to meet it. 



The Department of Applied Ornithology 

 has filled a pressing want, and all the signs 

 point to the establishment of a Depart- 

 ment of Bird Clubs, which shall be a cen- 

 tral bureau of information. 



To one not familiar with the underlying 

 causes, this continued growth of interest 

 in bird-life seems too rapid to be healthy 

 and normal. But to one who has been 

 closely in touch with all the influences 

 which, during the past twenty-five years, 

 have been urging the beauty and value of 

 birds, it is the reaping of crops which, if 

 long in maturing, are now yielding nobly. 



Impressive as is the comparison of our 

 present attitude toward birds with one 

 which existed a generation ago, we believe 

 that an even greater change will occur in 

 the succeeding decade. The inertia of 

 nearly complete ignorance has been over- 

 come. Ways and means for the develop- 

 ment of our inherent and almost universal 

 interest in birds are now so numerous that 

 some of them are bound to be within reach 

 of everyone. Leaflets, books, and colored 

 plates exist now, in the aggregate, by 

 hundreds of millions, where a score of 

 years since they were barely available. 

 And as the bird and its place in nature 

 becomes a matter of general knowledge, it 

 will become also a matter of general in- 

 terest; and thus, in time, it will be as 

 much a part of our lives as the changing 

 seasons with which it is so closely asso- 

 ciated. 



