Editorial 



237 



2^irti=1Lore 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Contributing Editor, MABELOSGOODWRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XXII Published August 1. 1920 No. 4 



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COPYRIGHTED, 192O, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Busb Is Worth Two in the Hand 



Although, for the past ten years, ill- 

 health prevented William Butcher from 

 entertaining even the slightest hope of 

 taking part in the work of the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies, he was 

 so closely identified with the origin and 

 growth of this organization that annually 

 during these ten years he was unanimously 

 re-elected to its presidency. Even now that 

 he has 'crossed the Great Divide' his 

 personality, to those who knew him, will 

 remain a vital part of the movement to 

 which he gave his life, while his name w"ill 

 ever be honored by all lovers of birds. 



Mr. Butcher was a pioneer in the move- 

 ment for bird-protection, and it may with 

 truth be said that of the hundreds of 

 humane and far-sighted people who have 

 espoused this cause, no one gave himself 

 to it more fully, freely, and ardently than 

 did William Butcher. For a quarter of a 

 century he devoted every moment that 

 could be spared from the exacting demands 

 of New York business life to the labors 

 which were so near his heart. Convinced 

 of the need for and importance of bird- 

 protection, and of the incalculable value 

 of birds to man, he labored with an earnest- 

 ness, enthusiasm, unselfishness, sincerity, 

 and sound judgment that won their just 

 reward, and it is due chiefly to William 

 Butcher that American birds now have 

 legal rights such as are not enjoyed by 

 the feathered citizens of any other country. 



We have long known that birds return 

 to the same locality, the same nesting-site, 

 and even the same nest year after year, 

 but it is only recently that we have learned 

 they may also pass the winter in the same 

 place during successive seasons. Impelled 

 by the impulses of the breeding season, 

 we have believed that a desire to return 

 to the nesting-ground has been stimulated 

 and directed by what we term 'love of 

 home,' but now we learn, through the 

 researches of Mr. Baldwin (of which 

 mention is made on a preceding page), 

 that a bird may journey across the United 

 States to winter each year in and near a 

 particular thicket. Mr. Baldwin's meth- 

 ods offer a most inviting and promis- 

 ing field for research. Now that the work 

 of bird-banding has been taken over by 

 the Biological Survey, we trust that it will 

 receive a new impetus. Boubtless in time 

 data will be secured which will enable us to 

 answer the frequently asked question, 

 "What becomes of the young bird?" The 

 assumption is that it returns to the scene 

 of its birth, and with birds having a 

 restricted range, as, for example, an island, 

 we know this to be the truth. But when 

 year after year we see birds successfully 

 rear their young without apparent increase 

 in the number of the species, the fate of 

 the young becomes a matter of increasing 

 interest to us. 



We can all recall a pair of Phoebes which 

 for many successive years have built in 

 exactly or essentially the same locality, 

 and launched their family into the world 

 without additional pairs of Phoebes build- 

 ing near the old nest-site the following 

 year. Or it may be a colony of Barn Swal- 

 lows which for generations has contained 

 approximately the same number of nests, 

 although each family of two may number 

 five or six at the end of the nesting season. 

 Bo the young as well as old return to=the 

 same hospitable shelter, and are birth-rate 

 and death-rate so evenly balanced that the 

 species just holds its own? Bird-banding 

 may tell us, and we therefore commend 

 Mr. Baldwin's important paper to those 

 who are interested in this subject. 



