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Bird- Lore 



Utrti^ltore 



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. VII Published February 1. 1905 No. 1 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

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

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1905, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush is IVorth Two in the Hand 



The publisher of a popular magazine, 

 noted for its large circulation rather than for 

 its literary excellence, sometimes adorns the 

 cover of his production with the statement 

 that he thinks the present number quite the 

 best which he has ever issued ; an out- 

 spoken blowing of trumpets which, at least, 

 has the merit of frankness even if it grates 

 on one's sense of the fitness of things. 



While we would not, therefore, so openly 

 express our satisfaction with the present 

 number of Bird-Lore, we cannot wholly 

 conceal our pleasure in being permitted to 

 place in our readers' hands a magazine con- 

 taining so many eminently practical, useful 

 and permanently valuable features as this 

 issue of Bird-Lore. We have so frequently 

 been asked for information in regard to 

 bird-houses, we are assured that the fully 

 illustrated, authoritative article on this sub- 

 ject which we present will be welcomed by 

 bird-lovers throughout the land. Surely 

 there is no more delightful way in which to 

 establish intimate relations with birds than 

 to have your own particular bird tenants, 

 with every detail of whose home-life you may 

 became familiar, and who, possibly, may 

 accept of your bounty year after year. The 

 readiness with which suitable nesting houses 

 are occupied not only ensures a successful 

 outcome of a speculation in ornithological 

 real estate, but is an indication of what an 

 agent would call " the demand for desirable 

 homes," and the extent to which we supply 



this demand is a measure of our aid to the 

 cause of practical bird protection. Let us 

 then prepare or erect our bird-houses for 

 the season now almost here, and in due time 

 send a brief report on our bird tenants for 

 publication in a later issue of Bird-Lore. 



Our chief cause for congratulation on the 

 present number of Bird-Lore, however, is 

 not alone due to the generosity of those who 

 contributed articles on bird-boxes, or to 

 the success of the Christmas Bird Census, 

 or Professor Cooke's migration records, or 

 the character of our Advisory Council, but 

 also to the inclusion in Bird-Lore, for the 

 first time, of the annual report of the Na- 

 tional Association of Audubon Societies. 

 Annual reports are apt to be perfunctory 

 affairs, at the best, and their enforced peru- 

 sal is an almost certain means of dispelling 

 the interest they were designed to arouse. 

 We venture to assert, however, that no one 

 having the slightest sympathy with bird 

 protection can begin Mr. Dutcher's report 

 without finishing it, nor can he finish it 

 without being surprised and impressed by 

 the development of the Audubon movement, 

 and the splendid foundation which has been 

 laid for the erection of an enduring struc- 

 ture. 



The instincts which prompt us to con- 

 demn and prevent cruelty and inhumanity, 

 to appreciate and delight in the beautiful, 

 to preserve man's heritage in nature so that 

 those who come after us may find the world 

 as beautiful as we have found it, should in- 

 spire our enthusiastic support of the cause 

 which Mr. Dutcher and his associates 

 throughout the country are so ably ad- 

 vancing. 



When a subscription list is headed with 

 a donation of $100,000, no further guarantee 

 of the importance of the object for which it 

 appeals should be necessary ; and we trust 

 that the close of the present year will see 

 the National Association of Audubon So- 

 cieties with an endowment of $1,000,000. 

 Then the one weak side — the financial — of 

 its work will have been so strengthened 

 that under the efficient management of the 

 interest of this sum the friends of the birds 

 need have no fear. 



