﻿Editorials 



71 



i&trti ilore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. VIII Published April 1. 1906 No. 2 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

 twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, post- 

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1906, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird tn the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



In this issue of Bire-Lore we had hoped 

 to announce the publication of the Warbler 

 Book, to which so many of Bird-Lore's 

 readers have made valuable contributions. 

 Circumstances beyond our control have, how- 

 ever, denied us this pleasure, but at least 

 we have the satisfaction of feeling that the 

 enforced delay in the publication of the book 

 will react advantageously on both its con- 

 tents and appearance. 



We have long had in mind an organiza- 

 tion within the Audubon Societies which 

 should conduct courses in ornithology on 

 lines somewhat similar to those so success- 

 fully employed by the Chautauqua Associa- 

 tion. An important and attractive feature 

 of this plan would be the establishment of 

 summer camps at favorable places where, 

 under competent leadership, local and gen- 

 eral ornithology, bird photography, etc., 

 could be studied to advantage. 



We still hope that some day this plan may 

 become more than an idea, but in the mean- 

 time its summer assembly side is developing 

 independently at various places throughout 

 the country in connection with biological 

 laboratories, summer schools and camps. 

 Some of these it has been our privilege to 

 visit, but among them all we do not recall 

 one more delightfully situated than Camp 

 Agassiz, near Lake Tahoe, in the Sierras. 

 The bird-life of this region varies as widely 

 as the character of its topography. On the 

 snow-covered, treeless mountain-tops are 

 Leucostictes ; in the magnificent coniferous 



forests, Pine and Evening Grosbeaks, Soli- 

 taires, Clarke's Crows, Sierra Grouse and 

 Hermit Warblers; in the broad marshes 

 bordering Tahoe, water-birds of various 

 species. 



Although it has little apparent bearing 

 in the bird-life of the place, we confess to so 

 delightful a recollection of a certain cold, 

 clear, bubbling mineral spring near Camp 

 Agassiz that we are quite sure some mention 

 of it should be made. 



Camp Agassiz is in charge of Mr. W. 

 W. Price, of Alta, and Mr. W. K. Fisher, 

 of Palo Alto, Cal., both well-known Pacific- 

 coast ornithologists. 



In Bird-Lore for December, two plans 

 for ornithological work were proposed. 

 One related to Bird-Lore's Annual Christ- 

 mas Bird Census, the other to a thor- 

 ough study of the life- history of some one 

 species of bird. The first was to be based 

 on the result of a day's outing, the second 

 on prolonged, serious study. Nearly one hun- 

 dred observers responded to the first call, 

 but to the second we have had but one re- 

 ply, Mr. Gilbert H. Trafton of Passaic, 

 N. J., having written us that he has selected 

 the American Goldfinch as a subject for 

 monographic study. 



While we confess a sense of disappoint- 

 ment that among the thousands of Bird- 

 Lore readers only one has announced his 

 intentions of definitely devoting himself to 

 a given subject, we realize that compara- 

 tively few people are so situated that they 

 can take up a study of this kind. Nor is it 

 necessary that every bird lover become an 

 ornithologist. 



Your real investigating naturalist realizes 

 so fully the pleasures of original research 

 that he is apt to think that every one who 

 is interested at all should attack the sub- 

 ject in his own business - like, determined 

 manner. 



To by far the greater number of people 

 the study of birds is a delightful recreation, 

 to which they can turn for rest from the 

 pressing problems of existence, and it is not 

 to be expected that their attitude toward the 

 bird will be that of the professional student. 



