62 



Bird - Lore 



Two ornithological organizations estab- 

 lished, in January, magazines for the pub- 

 lications of their proceedings and papers 

 relating to the avifauna of their respec- 

 tive states. The first, the ' Journal of the 

 Maine Ornithological Society, ' an octavo 

 quarterly, is edited by C. H. Morrill, at 

 Pittsfield, Maine ; the publisher an4 

 business manager being O. W. Knight, 

 of Bangor, Maine. The second, the 'Bul- 

 letin of the Cooper Ornithological Club,' 

 is edited by Chester Barlow, of Santa 

 Clara, California, with the assistance of 

 Henry Reed Taylor and Howard Robert- 

 son. The business managers are Donald 

 Cohen, of Alameda, and A. I. McCormick, 

 of Los Angeles, California. Both jour, 

 nals are the outgrowth of a demand on 

 the part of the societies they represent 

 for an official organ, and they will un- 

 doubtedly exert a stimulating influence 

 on the study of birds in the states in 

 which they are published. 



We have also to acknowledge the receipt 

 of the initial number of a third new peri- 

 odical, ' Nature Study in Schools, ' con- 

 ducted by the well-known naturalist, C. J. 

 Maynard, at West Newton, Mass. It 

 is an illustrated monthly of 26 pages, 

 containing papers interesting alike to 

 teachers and students, and should prove 

 very helpful in its chosen field. 



Houghton, Mifflin & Company have in 

 press a bird-book for children by Mrs. 

 Olive Thorne Miller, to be entitled ' The 

 First Book of Birds. ' As its name indi- 

 cates, it will aim to introduce its readers to 

 the study of birds by taking them from the 

 nest through all the ordinary phases of a 

 bird's existence, and including chapters on 

 structure, economics, directions for study, 

 etc. The book will be illustrated, and its 

 author's experience as a student and 

 teacher of birds is an assurance that it 

 will be a valuable addition to ornithologi- 

 cal literature. 



Few nature books not designed to assist 

 in identification of species have met 



with the sale that has been accorded 

 Ernest Seton Thompson's 'Wild Ani- 

 mals I Have Known ' (Charles Scribner's 

 Sons). Published late in October, it 

 went rapidly through several editions, 

 and by January i, or little more than 

 two months after its appearance, 7,000 

 copies had been disposed of. 



The reason for this phenomenal suc- 

 cess is not hard to find ; it appears on 

 every page of the book, the text, illus- 

 trations, and make-up of which are 

 equally pleasing. 



Mr. Thompson goes a step further 

 than most students of animals in nature. 

 He does not present us with the biog- 

 raphy of the species, but with its personal 

 history, and his minute knowledge of 

 and close sympathy with his subjects 

 leads to his writing a singular charm. 



Josephine A. Clark, of 1322 Twelfth 

 street, N. W. , Washington, D. C, pub- 

 lishes a useful ' Bird Tablet for Field 

 Use. ' It is abridged from the ' Outline 

 for Field Observations ' in Miss Merriam's 

 ' Birds of Village and Field, ' and may be 

 obtained from the publisher for the sum 

 of twenty-five cents. 



Mr. C. a. Babcock, well-known as the 

 originator of Bird-Day, has in manuscript 

 a book entitled ' Bird-Day and How to Pre- 

 pare for It, ' which will undoubtedly be of 

 much assistance to teachers, and add greatly 

 to the value of Bird-Day observances. 



The following books and papers relating 

 to birds have been received and will be 

 reviewed in future numbers ; The Cam- 

 bridge Natural History, Vol. IX, Birds, by 

 A. H. Evans (The Macmillan Co.); The 

 Birds of Ontario in Relation to Agricul- 

 ture, by Charles W. Nash ; The Winter 

 Food of the Chickadee, The Feeding 

 Habits of the Chipping Sparrow, by 

 Clarence M. Weed ; A Preliminary List 

 of the Birds of Belknap and Merrimack 

 counties. New Hampshire, with notes, by 

 Ned Dearborn ; Check List . of British 

 Columbia Birds, by John Fannin. 



