36 



Bird -Lore 



Utrti'Hore 



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. IV Published February 8, 1902 No. 1 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 

 Price in the United States, Canada, and Mexico 

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

 age paid. 



Subscriptions may be sent to the Publishers, at 

 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or 66 Fifth avenue, New 

 York City. 



Price in all countries in the International Postal 

 Union, twenty-five cents a number, one dollar and 

 a quarter a year, postage paid. Foreign agents, 



MACMILLAN AND COMPANY, LTD., London. 



copyrighted, 1902, by frank m. chapman 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand. 



For the first time in its history — and 

 Bird-Lore is now entering on its fourth 

 year — this magazine is not issued on the 

 day set for publication. The Editor offers 

 his apologies for the delay which was caused 

 by circumstances beyond his control. 



On the opening page of the initial volume 

 of his great work on American birds, re- 

 viewed in this number of Bird-Lore, Mr. 

 Ridgway makes what, from a broad, bio- 

 logic point of view, we believe to be an 

 unfortunate distinction between what he 

 terms "systematic or scientific and popular 

 ornithology." He says: "There are two 

 essentially different kinds of ornithology: 

 systematic or scientific, and popular. The 

 former deals with the structure and classifi- 

 cation of birds, their synonymies and tech- 

 nical descriptions. The latter treats of 

 their habits, songs, nesting, and other facts 

 pertaining to their life-histories." This is 

 equivalent to a statement that only syste- 

 matic ornithology is scientific ornithology, 

 while most modern biologists would, we 

 think, agree that the systematic study of a 

 group of animals, its classification, is only 

 the first step in its study, to be followed by 

 an even more scientific investigation of the 

 living creature, in which the relation of 

 function to structure, the economy of habits, 



in short, the philosophy of physical and 

 mental growth, are to be considered. 



The ornithologist who does not regard as 

 contributions to scientific ornithology certain 

 of the researches of Darwin, Wallace, Ro- 

 manes or Lloyd Morgan, for example, is far 

 from appreciating the possibilities of his 

 chosen subject. A bird is a marvelously 

 eloquent exponent of the workings of natural 

 laws, and to claim that the study of the liv- 

 ing specimen is not as scientific and impor- 

 tant as the study of the dead one, is to deny 

 that it is not as scientific and important to 

 ascertain cause as to observe effect. 



In publishing a series of papers on the 

 organization and methods of work of local 

 bird clubs in America the Editor has in 

 mind, primarily, the encouragement of the 

 formation elsewhere of similar societies, 

 which will arouse and develop an interest 

 in the study of local bird-life. The first 

 paper in the series appears in this issue of 

 Bird-Lore and, wholly aside from its his- 

 torical value, it contains, we think, many 

 suggestions worthy the attention of allied 

 organizations, chief among them being Mr. 

 Allen's description of the informality of the 

 Nuttall's Club meetings. We have observed 

 that the most enjoyable part of the meetings 

 of natural history societies is before and after 

 the meeting. With the Nuttall Club it is all 

 before and after, the evening being devoted 

 to discussion unmarred by the chilling in- 

 terposition of forms and usages better be- 

 fitting debating societies than bird clubs. 



From many readers of Bird-Lore we 

 have received, during the past two months, 

 very highly appreciated expressions of sat- 

 isfaction with the character of this magazine 

 and, in reply, we can only repeat that there 

 is "absolutely no limit to our ambition to 

 add to Bird-Lore's value and attractive- 

 ness." For the present, however, ambition 

 is restrained by the practical question of 

 space, and space by the even more practical 

 question of circulation. The situation, we 

 think, can be improved if our readers would 

 send on a postal addressed to Bird-Lore, 

 Box 655, Harrisburg, Pa., names and ad- 

 dresses of persons they believe would desire 

 to see a sample copy of Bird-Lore. 



