﻿Editorials 



141 



feixt) Hoxt 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



■OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THR AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. VIII Published August 1, 1906 No. 4 



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 in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



August has never received its due from 

 the bird student. Heat, mosquitos and 

 dense vegetation, together with a certain 

 subsidence in enthusiasm, following the de- 

 velopments of the nesting season, discourage 

 active field work during this month ; never- 

 theless, ornithologically, August is one of 

 the most interesting months of the year. 



The spring migration follows the com- 

 paratively barren winter time as a feast after 

 famine, but the beginnings of the fall mi- 

 gration are obscured in a period when birds 

 seem actually to be becoming daily less 

 abundant. As a matter of fact, they are 

 increasing in numbers. 



In the marshes this is apparent enough, 

 as the Swallows, Blackbirds and Bobolinks 

 gather there, but it is much less evident in 

 the woods, where only the most careful ob- 

 servation will reveal the presence of the first 

 migrant Warblers, Flycatchers and other 

 early transients. 



A recent experience in the Klamath 

 Lake region emphasizes the truth of Mr. W. 

 L. Finley's statement (See Bird-Lore for 

 December, 1905) that the traffic in Grebes' 

 plumage was to be controlled in New York 

 City, not on the bird's nesting-ground. At 

 the date of Mr. Finley's observations in this 

 region, no Grebes, we understand, were be- 

 ing killed, not because of any restrictions 

 imposed by law, but simply, it appears, be- 

 cause the price per skin was too low to make 

 hunting profitable. Mr. Finley writes of 

 finding sixty Grebes' nests in a single small 



tule island, and his admirable pictures show 

 numbers of the birds. We, however, found 

 but one nest and saw only an occasional 

 wary bird. Skinned bodies floating here and 

 there told the story of their disappearance, 

 which was finally put into words by a 

 Grebe-hunter himself on whom we chanced 

 one morning. Resting on his oars, he 

 summed up the situation by saying that 

 when the price of Grebes fell to fifteen cents 

 each they were not worth hunting, but now, 

 that they had gone up to fifty cents, there 

 was money in it. 



Living in a house-boat, hidden some- 

 where in the trackless marshes, this degene- 

 rate representative of the pioneer trapper 

 seemed far from the world of millinery ad- 

 ornment, but no stock-broker keeps his eye on 

 the tape more keenly than he on the quota- 

 tions of the New York feather markets, 

 which the dealers see that he duly receives, 

 and the moment the figures appear favorable 

 he becomes a factor in the situation. 



When we have convinced the wearer of 

 the borrowed plumes of her moral responsi- 

 bilities in the matter, we may turn our at- 

 tention to the esthetic education of the man 

 who has secured them for her. In the mean- 

 time, an appeal to the law, in Oregon at 

 least, seems of no avail. We had supposed 

 that after the passage of the A. O. U. Model 

 Law in Oregon, Grebes were protected, but 

 an opinion lately rendered to the game- 

 warden at Klamath Falls by the attorney- 

 general of the state, denies the birds legal 

 protection, on just what ground we are not 

 at this moment aware. 



In the present instance, however, the ef- 

 fects of the demands of fashion became in- 

 significant when compared with those which 

 will shortly follow the demands of an increas- 

 ing human population. The government 

 has selected Lower Klamath and Tule lakes 

 for "reclamation" by drainage. The work 

 is already well advanced, and the birds will 

 soon find that they have failed to secure title 

 to their homes through proper entry at the 

 land office. The nine points of possession 

 will yield to the one of might, and alfalfa 

 will grow where the Pelicans, Gulls, Terns 

 and Cormorants now rear their young. — 

 San Fraticisco, July 12, IQ06. 



