^°i908^^] Correspondence. 495 



to pay. He is not required to know so much as a chickadee from a crow. 

 It is the first step, — in short the primary class of our National Ornitho- 

 logical Association. 



Now why should an "associate" be barred from an advance to the 

 "members" class after his services to the cause of Ornithology have become 

 recognized as of some degree of importance sufficient to entitle him to 

 advancement? I doubt if anyone can show but that there are "associate 

 members" just as much entitled to be advanced to "members" as some 

 of those who have received such advancement? Is it a good policy to 

 keep a man years in the "associate" or primary class waiting for a vacancy 

 in the "members" class, and when a vacancy occurs, he or his friends must 

 put up a fight for it and if he wins it is at the expense of some others whose 

 claim to advancement is as good or better than his own? That is why I 

 resigned from the A. O. U. after a six or seven years' membership in the 

 primary grade. I felt that I had been there long enough, yet to be ad- 

 vanced meant that I stood in the way of someone more entitled to it than I. 



I would say make the standard of "fellows" and "members" as high as 

 you like but leave room for all who attain it. 



Yours very truly, 



John Lewis Childs. 

 Floral Park, N. Y. 



July 15th, '08. 



[Mr. Childs, in transmitting the above letter for publication, expressed 

 the desire to have it followed by such comment as the editors might wish 

 to make. This gives an opportunity for explanations that may interest 

 others who share Mr. Childs's point of view. He says, very truly, that 

 there are men in the class of Fellows whose services to ornithology are 

 far inferior to those rendered by many who are in the class of Members, 

 a condition of affairs which seems to him as very unjust and unreasonable, 

 though, he adds, there may be good reasons for it which he does not under- 

 stand. 



Mr. Childs objects to a limited membership ; but it has long been recog- 

 nized by societies of all classes — in art, literature and science — that 

 membership is sought for and valued in direct proportion to its numerical 

 limitations. Mr. Childs would have eligibility to Fellows in the A. O. U. 

 determined by a "Board of Fellows," but such eligibility can be determined 

 only by the establishment of a standard, and experience has long shown 

 that a standard can be established and maintained only by declaring that 

 certain classes of membership shall not exceed a certain number. 



The condition complained of by Mr. Childs had its origin long ago, and is 

 due to contingencies that were not foreseen. The American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union was organized twenty-five years ago. The tremendous 

 advancement in all departments of science during the last quarter-century 

 is well known, not only in respect to discoveries and methods of work, 

 but in respect to the number and training of those engaged in scientific 



