turn Company. $3.75. 



By BROOKS ATKINSON 

 --^ KING now within hailing dis- 

 L> tance of his seventieth birth- 



1 day. Dr. Chapman, curato 

 J -' of birds at the American 

 Museum of Natural History, has 

 set down the testament of 

 unate life. In a world crowded 

 wUn people who wear their lives 

 1C over tasks that do not m- 

 terest them, Dr. Chapman has had 

 the privilege of working at what 

 he loves best. He has made a ca- 

 reer of birds. He has pursued his 

 devotions over wild and beautiful 

 parts of the world, into jungles, 

 across mountain ranges and at sea. 

 He has lived out of doors. 



Nor has it been a selfish life, for 

 Dr Chapman is no museum pedant. 

 By his writings, which he mentions 

 only in passing in his autobiog- 

 raphy he has brought exact knowl 

 edge of birds within the range of 

 thousands of people who love them 

 rhapsodically. He has invigorated 

 the usefulness of museums. He 

 has had enormous influence in pro- 

 tecting birds against indiscrimi 

 nate slaughter. In 1928 the Roose 

 velt Memorial Association awarded 

 a medal to Dr. Chapman in recog 

 nition of his achievements in mak 

 ing ornithology a popular subject. 

 That was a wise award; it cele- 

 brated a humane contribution to 

 the beauty of daily living. "Birds 

 * * * are nature's most eloquent 

 expressions," Dr. Chapman re- 

 marks in this volume. During the 

 course of his life he has seen gen- 

 eral ignorance of bird-life yielding 

 to a widespread knowledge of their 

 habits and loveliness, and in large 

 part he is personally responsible 

 for this enrichment of human 

 awareness. It must give him great 

 satisfaction to realize that. If his 

 life has been fortunate he has re- 

 turned payment in full by helping 

 to make the lives of other people 



"rtunate all through the tremen- 

 dous area of North America. 



Somewhere in the course of 

 volume Dr. Chapman has a word , 

 or two of counsel for the young- 

 M y standing advice to young 



birds will grow with his growth 

 should adopt ornithology 



find incalculable wealth in the 

 opportunity to go far m his 

 cnosen field. To the question of 

 how he can be assured that his, 

 interests in birds will endure I 

 answer, "Through his inability to 

 overcome it." 



That is advice borne out by Dr 

 Chapman's own career. How he 

 came to be a bird man is the warm- 

 est part of his autobiography, for 

 birds chose him as much as he 

 chose them. He was born in Eng' 

 wood, where bird students still go 

 afoot, particularly in the migration 

 season, and he had a boy's love of 

 hunting. Among other things he 

 hunted birds; one of the first he 

 ahot was an orchard oriole, which 

 is still uncommon enough in thi 

 vicinity to delight any one who sees 

 it. Although he had at that tim 

 no enthusiasm especially for bird 

 the friends he made and the book 

 he happened upon began to concen 

 trate his interest in that field. H 

 discovered through natural boyhoo 

 development that birds were 

 tremendous subject. By thumbin 

 the pages of "Johnson's Natural 

 History" he became acquainted wit 

 the enormous diversity of orn 

 thological life. 



After graduating from Englewoo 

 Academy at the age of 16 he went 

 to work for the American Exchange 

 Bank of New York City, leaving 

 home at 7:30 in the morning and 

 returning toward evening. But his 

 heart was more and more in the 

 fields. He continued to form friend- 

 ships that stimulated his random 



