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Bird - Lore 



ilirtJ'Eore 



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. II 



FEBRUARY, 1900 



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 

 Englewood, New Jersey, 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, 1900, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

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



Bird-Lore begins its second year under 

 circumstances which encourage the be- 

 lief that already it is in a fair way 

 to accomplish the purposes for which it 

 was established. These, it may be re- 

 membered, were stated in our first issue 

 to be a desire to aid students of birds in 

 nature and to promote the cause of the 

 Audubon Societies. 



As far as our relations with bird-stu- 

 dents are concerned, we desire here to 

 express our appreciation of the large 

 number of letters we have received from 

 subscribers who have been kind enough 

 to say that Bird-Lore has been of as- 

 sistance to them. Their warmly spoken 

 thanks are very grateful to us, and one 

 letter, like the following, goes far toward 

 recompensing us for any labor expended 

 in their behalf. The writer says : "I wish 

 to take this opportunity of expressing my 

 appreciation of Bird-Lore and of saying 

 that it has with me accomplished the 

 purpose for which you say it is pub- 

 lished — namely, the development of an 

 active interest in birds. I am a novice 

 in ornithology, but Bird-Lore has helped 

 "^to make the woods and fields mean far 

 more to me than they ever did before, 

 by disclosing a side of nature to which I 



now see I was, until recently, practically- 

 blind; and I think that my experiences 

 must be but an example of the experience 

 of many of your other readers, who, like 

 myself, are business men, and so have 

 comparatively little time to study nature." 

 From the Audubon Societies we have 

 received very welcome assurances that 

 Bird-Lore is filling a ' long felt want, ' 

 and, in this connection, we may be per- 

 mitted to quote from the report for 1899 

 of Mr. Witmer Stone, chairman of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union Commit- 

 tee on Bird-Protection. In his report 

 for 1898, Mr. Stone had remarked upon 

 the necessity of an official organ for the 

 Audubon Societies ; he now says that the 

 idea of such a magazine has been realized 

 by the appearance of 'Bird-Lore,' " which 

 has fully justified the highest expectations 

 of its advocates. The Audubon Society 

 department, under the direction of Mrs. 

 Mabel Osgood Wright, serves to unite 

 these organizations and forms, as it were, a 

 central bureau of information upon this 

 line of work." — Auk, Jan. 1900, p. 52. 



The press throughout the country, has 

 greeted ' Bird-Lore ' most cordially, and 

 from numerous notices we select the follow- 

 ing from the Philadelphia ' North Ameri- 

 can:' "Bird-Lore completes its first year 

 with the current December number, in many 

 ways the best so far issued, which is saying 

 a good deal. The editor and. publishers 

 of this more than attractive, beautifully 

 illustrated magazine deserve the utmost 

 encouragement, for not only is it full of 

 interest for bird-lovers and students of 

 field ornithology, but it is active in a work 

 — that of protecting our birds — which is 

 far more important, economically as well 

 as aesthetically, than most can imagine. 

 For these reasons, we heartily commend 

 Bird-Lore as the best popular magazine 

 on birds." 



This reception of Bird-Lore is far more 

 gratifying than mere pecuniary success 

 could be and is a potent spur to our desire 

 to make each issue better than the last. 



In the earlier numbers of the present 

 volume, which appear at a time of the 

 year when bird-studies form a part of 



