Editorials 



269 



BirtJ-Eore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THB AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. X Published December 1, 1908 No. 6 



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 



With this number Bird-Lore com- 

 pletes its tenth year. It is not for us to 

 speak of what the magazine has been or 

 of the influence it has exerted. We prefer 

 to look ahead rather than behind, and 

 are more concerned with the future than 

 with the past. 



No single feature of Bird-Lore has met 

 with greater approval than the colored 

 plates of North American birds. The first 

 one was published in December, 1903, 

 and the series now include the Warblers, 

 the Thrushes and the Flycatchers,' the 

 concluding plate of which will appear in 

 our next issue. 



In response to the requests of many 

 subscribers, the Flycatchers will be fol- 

 lowed by the Vireos. Because of the small 

 number of species in this group and of the 

 comparatively limited amount of variation 

 in their plumage with age and sex, this 

 series will be completed during the year, 

 and, still guided by the expressed wish of 

 our subscribers, it will be followed by 

 plates of the Sparrows. 



As for other illustrations, we trust that 

 they will come from the cameras of our 

 readers. It is Bird-Lore's mission to 

 inspire a practical interest in the study of 

 birds in nature and it particularly urges the 

 value of the camera as a means of graphi- 

 cally recording one's observations. The 

 use of the camera, however, is not un- 

 attended by expense, as every bird photog- 

 rapher will testify. To remove this 



objection, therefore, Bird-Lore will pay 

 for all photographs which it accepts for 

 publication. 



So far as text is concerned, in the earlier 

 volumes of Bird-Lore, nine-tenths of 

 the leading articles were written by 

 request of the editor, and it was our cus- 

 tom in this, the last number of the year, 

 to announce the principal contents of the 

 succeeding volume. This plan made it 

 impossible for us to accept many contri- 

 butions from our readers and, in our 

 opinion, tended to defeat Bird-Lore's 

 aim to encourage original observation 

 with a view to adding to our knowledge 

 of birds' habits. 



We wish, therefore, all Bird-Lore's 

 readers to consider the magazine's pages 

 at their disposal for the publication of 

 such observations as seem worthy of 

 record. This includes not only notes for 

 the 'Field and Study' department but 

 more detailed studies. 



The subject of serious and continuous 

 studies, especially of the nest-life of birds, 

 leads us to say a word in regard to the 

 methods employed by some students, who, 

 possessing a limitless fund of both pati- 

 ence and perseverance defeat their own 

 purpose by a failure to comprehend the 

 importance of studying their subject 

 under natural conditions. 



For example, we have lately received 

 several manuscripts based on prolonged 

 studies of the home life of certain birds in 

 which the students showed a persistence, 

 care and tirelessness deserving of far more 

 valuable results than were obtained. 

 Indeed the results were of little or no value 

 wholly because the observers made no 

 attempt at self-concealment and conse- 

 quently the objects of their study were at 

 all times aware that they were under obser- 

 vation and hence were either much alarmed 

 or, at the best, unnatural. 



Whether, therefore, one proposes to 

 study the history of a certain nest or the 

 life of a given locality, some form of con- 

 cealment is necessary, and for further 

 remarks on just what form of a blind may 

 be used, we refer to our article on this 

 subject on an earlier page. 



