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Bird - Lore 



25irtr=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, MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XVI Published December 1, 1914 No. 6 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico, twenty cents 

 a number, one dollar a year, postage paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1914. BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Hand 



Three of the leading bird artists of the 

 world — Allan Brooks, George Lodge, and 

 John Millais — are serving their country 

 in the English army. The possibility of 

 death coming to any one of these men, 

 whose special talents may not appear 

 again in generations, gives us a faint con- 

 ception of what this war is costing the 

 world in the loss of men who by their 

 gifts and attainments were benefitting, 

 not a race, but mankind. As bird-lovers 

 let us at least be thankful that Louis 

 Fuertes is an American! 



The appalling destruction of Rheas, 

 recorded by Mr. Leo E. Miller, in Bird- 

 Lore for July-August last (p. 260), having 

 been brought to the attention of the 

 Treasury Department, it affords us un- 

 bounded satisfaction to state that on 

 November 9, 1914, the Department pro- 

 hibited the further importation of Rhea 

 feathers into the United States, thereby, 

 we believe, assuring the continued exist- 

 tence of one of the most interesting of 

 American birds. 



The year just passed has been marked by 

 an ever-growing interest in various meas- 

 ures designed to increase our bird popula- 

 tion, and the birds' trust in man. 



The desire to bring birds about our 

 homes and establish friendly relations 

 with them, which finds its first expression 

 in a feeding-table or lunch-counter dur- 

 ing the winter, now exerts itself through- 



out the year. To the feeding-station, 

 we add drinking-fountains, baths and 

 nesting-boxes, and to all these an environ- 

 ment from which, so far as lies within our 

 power, all bird enemies shall be excluded. 



The economic value of these bird 

 refuges calls for no comment, but pos- 

 sibly only those who have had the experi- 

 ence realize how much pleasure is to be 

 derived from them. The person who makes 

 four birds nest where only two nested 

 before cannot but have that personal, 

 intimate interest in their welfare which 

 we have for the flowers in our garden. 

 Both owe their existence to us, and to 

 both we are, therefore, responsible. They 

 are 'our' flowers and, in a measure at 

 least, 'our' birds. Each will repay us 

 after its kind, and from both we derive 

 that type of satisfaction which comes 

 from a successful attempt to be the pre- 

 siding genius of that particular bit of the 

 earth's surface we can call our own. 



Bird-Lore has published, from time to 

 time, accounts of bird-refuges, both large 

 and small.* In this number Mr. Robert 

 Ridgway gives the first of three articles 

 on his efforts to provide a refuge for birds 

 in southern Illinois, and in our /\.pril 

 number we plan to publish an account of 

 what, in many ways, we believe will be 

 the most productive bird-refuge which has 

 been formed in this country. We shall not 

 anticipate Mrs. Wright's story, but 

 merely say that in the 'Birdcraft Sanc- 

 tuary' there will be certain features which 

 promise to be as valuable as they are novel. 



Why is it that America has not as yet 

 produced a woman bird-photographer of 

 the first-class, while in England there 

 are several whose work ranks with the 

 best? We shall not now attempt to answer 

 this question, but during the coming year 

 we are promised a fully illustrated article 

 by Miss E. L. Turner, possibly the most 

 successful woman bird-photographer in 

 England, whose achievements, we trust, 

 will stir the ambition of American women. 



*See especially William P. Wharton's descrip- 

 lion of a visit to Baron von Berlepsch's estate at 

 Seebach, Germany, which appeared in Bird-Lore 

 for September-October, 1914, pp. 329-337. 



