Bird Clubs in America 



17 



ings occupied themselves largely with the more technical branches of the 

 study. Most new clubs, I take it, will devote themselves more to 

 observation than to the examination of skins and will be especially 

 interested in the brand-new art of bird-photography. They will wish, 

 too, to systematize their work much more than has been possible for the 

 Nuttall Club in recent years, and in this way they can accomplish much 

 not only for their members but for the science which they are cultivating. 

 One of the first things a new club in a comparatively unworked region 

 should do is to map out the fauna of its locality, and to compile migration 

 data. This sort of thing can be done to much better advantage by co- 

 operative work, of course, than by unorganized individual effort. Then 

 there are countless other branches of study that may be taken up in 

 ths same systematic manner. Members should be encouraged, however, 

 in investigation on independent lines, and some time should be made 

 at each meeting for general notes of interest from observations in the 

 field. Ornithological science has nearly as many branches as there are 

 individual tastes and temperaments, and it is easy to conceive of a 

 club of almost any size, each member of which should have his own 

 particular specialty, while interested too in what every other member 

 is doing — making it his ambition to know something of everything in 

 ornithology, and everything of something. Perhaps such an organization 

 would, after all, be the ideal bird club. 



A WINTER VISITOR 

 Pine Grosbeak, photographed from life, by Martha W. Brooks, at Petersham, Mass., March 17, 1900 



