1914] Bryant: Economic Status of the Western Meadowlark 385 



scientific method. The efficiency of the forest service can be 

 attributed to the same methods. If, then, this type of investi- 

 gation can help us to conserve our health and our forests, it 

 should also lead to the best method of conserving our native 

 birds. 



Professor Charles S. Minot has denned the method of science 

 as "the art of making durable, trustworthy records of natural 

 phenomena. ' ' He goes on to say : ' ' The method of science is 

 not special or peculiar to it, but only a perfected application 

 of our human resources of observation and reflection to use 

 the words of von Baer, the great embryologist. To secure relia- 

 bility the method of science is, first, to record, everything with 

 which it deals, the phenomena themselves and the inferences of 

 the individual investigators, and to record both truly; second, 

 to verify and correlate the personal knowledges until they acquire 

 impersonal validity, which means, in other words, that the con- 

 clusions approximate so closely to the absolute truth that we 

 can be safety guided by them." These statements justify the 

 use of scientific method for any modern problem and especially 

 for the problem in hand. 



"But putting aside economic and utilitarian considerations, 

 there is to some of us a greater stimulus to solve the problems 

 of nature. With the birds, and the insects and plants upon 

 which they feed, we share a common heritage, and the more we 

 learn of the life of these, our fellow-workers, the nearer we ap- 

 proach solution of the great riddle of the Universe, the mysterious 

 law-abiding scheme of Nature. The book of knowledge to which 

 we add some iota is marred with mystery, superstition and error, 

 but each proved fact cleanses its pages. 'Facts,' says Laing, 

 'are the spokes of the ladder by which we climb from earth to 

 heaven.' " (See Coward, 1912.) 



The labor, time and cost of such an investigation as this is 

 amply justified by the results to be expected. A knowledge of 

 the real economic status of a bird means dollars in the pocket 

 of the rancher, for the destruction of any bird which causes 

 serious damage, or the preservation of any bird that is a benefit, 

 has a direct bearing on the size of the crop raised. Nor is the 

 value to the rancher the only value to be considered, for, as will 



