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Bird -Lore 



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. X 



Published June 1. 1908 



NO. 3 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

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

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, I908, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto : 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



We have before referred to the studies 

 of Noddies and Sooty Terns by Prof. John 

 B. Watson on Bird Key, Tortuags, during 

 the nesting season of 1908, and in the 

 annual report of Dr. Alfred G. Mayer, 

 Director of the Department of Marine 

 Biology of the Carnegie Institution, under 

 the auspices of which Professor Watson's 

 researches were made, there appears a 

 preliminary report of this work. The final 

 report will appear during the year, and we 

 will call attention here, therefore, only to 

 Professor Watson's supremely interesting 

 tests of the homing instincts of Noddies 

 and Sooty Terns. Fifteen marked birds 

 were taken from the Key and released 

 at distances varying from about 20 to 

 850 statute miles, thirteen of them re- 

 turning to the Key. Among these thirteen 

 were several birds which were taken by 

 steamer as far north as Cape Hatteras 

 before being freed. 



This experiment is by far the most im- 

 portant in its bearing on bird migration 

 of any with which we are familiar. It was 

 made under ideal conditions. Neither the 

 Noddy nor Sooty Tern range, as a rule, 

 north of the Florida Keys. There is no 

 probability, therefore, that the individuals 

 released had ever been over the route be- 

 fore, and, for the same reason, they could 

 not have availed themselves of the ex- 

 perience or example of migrating indi- 

 viduals of their own species; nor, since 

 the birds were doubtless released in June 



or July, was there any marked southward 

 movement in the line of which they might 

 follow. Even had there been such a move- 

 ment, it is not probable that it would have 

 taken the birds southwest to the Florida 

 Keys, and thence west to the Tortugas. 

 This marked change in direction, occa- 

 sioned by the water course, which the 

 birds' feeding habits forced them to take, 

 removes the direction of the wind as a 

 guiding agency, while the absence of land- 

 marks over the greater portion of the 

 journey, makes it improbable that sight 

 was of service in finding the way. Pro- 

 fessor Watson presents, as yet, no con- 

 clusions, but, while awaiting with interest 

 his final report, we cannot but feel that 

 his experiments with these birds constitute 

 the strongest argument for the existence 

 of a sense of direction as yet derived from 

 the study of birds. With this established, 

 the so-called mystery of migration be- 

 comes ' no more a mystery than any 

 other instinctive functional activity. 



' The Guide to Nature Study,' Mr. E. F. 

 Bigelow, presents an editorial in which we 

 quote at length : " The most difficult task 

 that has thus far come to me in the es- 

 tablishing of 'The Guide to Nature' has 

 been the returning of manuscripts, as I 

 have had to do, even to some of the 

 magazine's best friends. The announce- 

 ment that this is to be a magazine of help- 

 fulness, to inspire and increase an interest 

 in nature, has brought forth an immense 

 number of essays on what, for lack of a 

 better term, I must call 'glittering gener- 

 alities' about the beauty and suggestive- 

 ness of nature. This is to be a magazine 

 not of preaching on 'The Beauty and 

 Interest to be Observed in Insects,' 'The 

 Fascinations of Ornithology,' 'Wonders 

 of the Plant World,' or similar general 

 essays; but each article is to have a specific 

 statement of what has been actually seen 

 or done, not what the author's point of 

 view may be. . . ." If Mr. Bigelow can 

 produce a magazine which will meet this 

 standard (and he makes an excellent show- 

 ing in his first two numbers), he will bene- 

 fit his contributors as well as his readers. 



