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Bird- Lore 



jStrti-ilore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIE5 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. VIII Published June 1. 1906 



No. 3 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

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

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 



BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



This is the season for practicing, not for 

 preaching ornithology; the season of plenty 

 to which, during the winter, we look for- 

 ward eagerly. Books and specimens now 

 seem a sad substitute for the bird in its 

 haunts, and we welcome the opportunity to 

 go to Nature itself to see for ourselves 

 phenomena with which we are familiar only 

 through the descriptions of others, and with 

 the always inspiring possibility of observing 

 some fact which has escaped record. 



It may be only a new date for an old bird ; 

 it may be some noted phenomenon in bird- 

 life ; in either case the observation is origi- 

 nal and possesses the incomparable force 

 of a personal experience. Since the last 

 number of Bird-Lore appeared, we have, 

 for example, seen the Migrant Shrike at 

 Englewood, N. J., for the first time in the 

 spring (April 16), and have watched, un- 

 der exceptionally favorable conditions, the 

 ' booming ' Prairie Hen. The experiences 

 differ widely in interest, but they possess, 

 in common, the educative value attached to 

 those things we see with our own eyes. 



No bird- protective law should be without 

 a provision providing for the granting of 

 permits to collect birds for scientific pur- 

 poses ; and, be it said to the credit of the 

 Audubon Societies, they have invariably 

 advocated the inclusion of such a provision 

 when urging the passage of bird-protective 

 measures. These permits are usually issued 

 by the State Forest, Fish and Game Com- 

 mission, and the present tendency is not 

 only to make it exceedingly difficult to se- 



cure a permit, but to restrict the number 

 issued. The conditions under which a per- 

 mit may be secured may well be determined 

 by those who give it; but we believe it to 

 be unwise so to restrict the number of per- 

 mits in force that deserving applicants are 

 denied the privilege of securing specimens 

 legally. With purposeless collecting we 

 are not in sympathy, but in this country at 

 least, truly scientific collecting for a definite 

 object has never, to our knowledge, per- 

 ceptibly diminished the numbers of any 

 species of bird, and it seems a poor policy 

 to turn a reputable ornithologist into a law- 

 breaker or law-hater by refusing to accord 

 him permission to pursue his studies within 

 the limits of the law. 



We have been much impressed recently 

 with the character of the work being done 

 by certain State Bird Clubs or Unions. The 

 purely ornithological results which may ac- 

 crue from cooperation of this kind are too 

 obvious to require mention; it is rather the 

 benefits derived by the ornithologist to 

 which we would call attention. The knowl- 

 edge that one's every-day observations are 

 of interest and value to one's fellow mem- 

 bers stimulates effort; while in the light of 

 the records of others, one's own records 

 often acquire a new significance. There is, 

 too, the pleasure to be derived from contact 

 with those who possess our tastes. In short, 

 organizations of the kind we have in mind 

 so widely increase the local ornithologist's 

 possibilities for effective work, and so add 

 to his enjoyment of it, that we wish every 

 state had its own Bird Club. 



In addition to the opportunities for in- 

 struction in bird-lore, offered by Camp 

 Agassiz in the Sierras, mentioned in our 

 last issue, we learn that Mrs. A. H. Wal- 

 ters, joint author of ' Wild Birds in City 

 Parks,' is offering a course on bird study at 

 the summer session of the biological labora- 

 tory of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and 

 Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, 

 N. Y. Full information may be obtained 

 from the director, C. B. Davenport, Station 

 for Experimental Evolution, Cold Spring 

 Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. — Tucson, 

 Arizona, May 12, 1906. 



