508 Correspondence. lee 
“The Way to Study Birds.” 
Epiror or ‘THE AUK’ 
After reading several of the reviews of my recent book, ‘The Way to 
Study Birds,’ I have been tempted to write a few words in explanation. 
Apparently in my preface I rather failed in my attempt to give an adequate 
idea of the book’s purpose. In this connection, however, I have perhaps 
my best clue furnished by a reviewer in ‘ The Nation,’ who writes that I have 
given ‘‘a handbook to the study of a handbook.” This then was my 
object: to make clear the way for the beginner so that the many orni- 
thological ‘‘handbooks”’ could be of use to him; so that he can be brought 
to the viewpoint where he is able to advantageously employ them. To 
continue, as ‘The Nation’ amits, my book is ‘‘no substitute for the amply 
illustrated manuals by Chester Reed and others.”’ I have used very much 
these same words myself, as perhaps anyone who has really read my book 
will remember. It is to make possible an understanding of the “‘manuals”’, 
and to give a course of study, which followed throughout holds good, that 
I wrote my book. But I did not consider it necessary to give more than 
fifty examples of my plan. By that time, an average person is able to under- 
stand the work and continue by self-instruction. 
Unfortunately, in their review of my book, ‘ The Nation’ made two scien- 
tific errors of fact. The Turkey Vulture or ‘‘buzzard”’ is a common sum- 
mer resident throughout the area covered by my book and is not ‘‘entirely 
unknown” in any part for which it was written. This is similarly true 
of the Starling. It is, I hope, unnecessary to refute the other fact, as 
expounded by ‘The Nation,’ that, for example, an English Sparrow is no 
more abundant than a Belted Kingfisher. These are, however, minor 
mistakes, and my book was written, as so well expressed, with the object 
of being a handbook for the study of a handbook. 
J. DrypEN KUSER. 
Bernardsville, N. J., August 30, 1917. 
Concealing Coloration. 
Epritor or ‘THE AUK’: 
Here is Henry Drummond’s paragraph on the concealing power of 
zebras’ stripes, with a perfectly correct analysis of the thing’s principle. 
I should have drawn attention to it long ago had I before now learned of 
its existence. 
“When we look, for instance, at the coat of a zebra with its thunder-and- 
lightning pattern of black and white stripes, we should think such a 
conspicuous object to court, rather than elude, attention. But the effect 
is just the opposite. The black and white somehow take away the sense 
