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Bird - Lore 



ilirti'ltore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBOV SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. VII Published December 1. 1905 No. 6 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

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

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED. 1903. BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto : 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



An Opportunity for the Local 

 Ornithologist 



During the past year our enterprising 

 Pacific coast contemporary, 'The Condor,' 

 has been conducting a discussion of the 

 opportunities for original work offered to 

 the investigator by the study of birds. It is 

 encouraging to note that none of the con- 

 tributors to this symposium suggests system- 

 atic work as the promising field of future 

 endeavor, but that they emphasize the im- 

 portance of the study of the bird in relation 

 to its environment. 



For the greater part, however, their re- 

 marks are addressed to those who desire to 

 make ornithology their profession ; but the 

 probabilities are that in no other branch of 

 zoology are the professionals so outnumbered 

 by the amateurs; and this fact, it seems to 

 us, should be constantly held in mind in 

 any consideration of ornithological interests. 



For one person whose official position 

 gives him the time and very elaborate 

 equipment essential to research in technical 

 ornithology, there are hundreds, equally 

 ambitious, but handicapped by limited op- 

 portunity and indequate material. 



These are the local bird students whose 

 daily vocation has perhaps no relation to 

 ornithological pursuits, in which, how- 

 ever, they take the keenest interest. To 

 what problems can they turn their attention? 

 How can they gratify tiieir desire to achieve 

 distinction by making some noteworthy con- 

 tribution to the science of birds ? 



There is that usual outlet to circumscribed 

 activity — the 'Local List," a wholly admi- 

 rable thing, but it is not necessary that 

 ever}' ornithologist publish such a list, 

 though he may contribute to it. There is 

 that so often fatal undertaking, a collection 

 of birds' skins, nests and eggs. Fatal, not to 

 the birds, for reasonably limited collecting 

 never appreciably affected their abundance, 

 but fatal to the ornithological future of the 

 collector. 



Once bow the knee to the collecting fetish, 

 and we may as well acknowledge at once 

 its power for all time. The formation and 

 care of even a small collection is more than 

 apt to be the beginning and the end of our 

 labors. The means to the end becomes the 

 end and the specimens themselves acquire a 

 value which makes their acquisition a suffi- 

 cient reward for our endeavor. 



It is true that one of the participants in 

 the discussion we have mentioned considers 

 experience as a collector "essential to suc- 

 cess, no matter what department of orni- 

 thology the young student may finally decide 

 to investigate," but since he adds that "no 

 young man is justified in thus taking bird 

 life unless he is reasonably sure that his 

 interest in ornithology is likely to be last- 

 ing, and that his ability to devote his life to 

 its pursuit is also assured," we may con- 

 clude that he is addressing the professional 

 rather than the amateur student of birds. 



In what direction, then, can the latter 

 direct his efforts with a hope of making an 

 addition to knowledge? In our opinion, his 

 object may be accomplished by extreme 

 specialization. He should devote himself 

 not to the study of birds, but to the study of 

 a bird, selecting, preferably, the common- 

 est species of his locality. 



Once let him determine to prepare as 

 complete a biography of the Robin, Crow, 

 Song Sparrow or Blue Jay as circumstances 

 will permit, and his studies will assume a 

 definiteness, importance and interest which 

 they lacked before. Not only will he pur- 

 sue his field work with renewed vigor, but 

 his researches will extend to publications 

 which before had no attraction for him; 

 and his search for information will lead to a 

 correspondence with fellow students through- 



