Editorials 



223 



iSirtJ-Hore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THK AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. IX Published October 1. 1907 No. 5 



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

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, I907, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto : 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



The annual meeting of the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies, to be held 

 at the American Museum of Natural History 

 on October 29, should be well attended. 

 The Association's increased income has per- 

 mitted it greatly to broaden its field of activ- 

 ities, and with its allied State Societies, it is 

 now not alone the most effective organized 

 protector of wild life, but through its work in 

 disseminating good, sound, popular ornitho- 

 logical literature to the schools, it exerts a 

 profound influence on the future of ornithol- 

 ogy in this country. Numerous possibilities 

 for development present themselves and their 

 discussion at the annual meeting is greatly to 

 be desired. 



Comparison of conditions prevailing in 

 this country with those which exist in Italy, 

 as they are revealed by Professor Herrick's 

 paper, concluded in this number of Bird- 

 Lore, should give all Americans cause for 

 special thanksgiving. In other phases of 

 ornithology — the study of migration, of geo- 

 graphical distribution, and of climatic varia- 

 tion — American ornithologists, as is well 

 known, are more advantageously situated 

 than their brethren of the continents, where 

 smaller political divisions do not beget the 

 cooperation and unity of interests which are 

 found in this country. 



Uniformity of law is one of the fundaments 

 of adequate bird protection. While with us 

 the passage of the Model Law, by most of the 

 states in the Union, has gone far toward mak- 

 ing the laws effective in their primary intent. 



the ideal condition will not be reached until 

 we have a Federal law such as Mr. George 

 Shiras, 3d, has proposed, placing the framing 

 and enforcement of all laws relating to migra- 

 tory birds in the hands of the Federal govern- 

 ment. 



In Europe the attitude of Italy well-nigh 

 renders the whole case hopeless. At the 

 International Convention for the Protec- 

 tion of Birds, held in Paris in 1902, Italy's 

 delegate was instructed to sign no "bind- 

 ing schedule," and her refusal to cooperate 

 with the other countries represented was 

 emphasized by her further statement that 

 "no agreement refused by Italy could be of 

 any advantage to Hungary or Austria." Not 

 only is the enormous destruction of bird-life 

 in Italy to be deplored, but the fact that Italy 

 is a migratory highway over which the birds 

 of a large part of Europe travel in their jour- 

 neys to and from Africa discourages attempts 

 to protect these birds in their more northern 

 summer homes. 



It is unfortunate that the attempt to form 

 an ornithological section of the International 

 Zoological Congress held in Boston, August 

 19-24, 1907, was undertaken at too late a 

 date to permit of proper organization, for that 

 there was no lack of interest in the subject, 

 was evinced by the number of papers on 

 birds presented before the Congress, as will be 

 seen by the following titles: 'A Comparative 

 Study of Birds with Respect to Intelligence 

 and Imitation,' J. P. Porter; 'The Influ- 

 ence of Domestication on the Behavior of 

 the Ostrich,' J. E. Duerden; 'Organization 

 of the Gull Community: A Study of the 

 Communal Life of Birds,' F. H. Herrick; 'A 

 Statistical Study of the Local Distribution and 

 Ecology of Birds, ' S. A. Forbes ; ' Geo- 

 graphic Variation in Birds, with Special Refer- 

 ence to Humidity,' C. W. Beebe; 'Remarks 

 on the Geographical Origin of North Ameri- 

 can Birds, ' Frank M. Chapman. 



In republishing several of the photographs 

 illustrating SchiUing's 'Flashlights from the 

 Jungle, ' the National Geographic Magazine 

 calls attention to the fact that the flashlight 

 apparatus employed by Schilling was in- 

 vented by George Shiras, 3rd, the pioneer in 

 the flashlight photography of wild animals. 



