Editorials 



103 



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. V 



Published June 1. 1903 



No. 3 



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 

 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 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. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1903, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto : 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



During May, June and July the editor 

 expects to be a-field. At times he hopes 

 to be beyond the reach of mails, and cor- 

 respondents will therefore kindly pardon 

 delayed answers to their communications. 



Dr. Thompson's study of the Terns of 

 the Tortugas, with Dr. Mayer's admirable 

 photographs, is not only a valuable addi- 

 tion to the life-history of the species treated, 

 but it is an important contribution to the 

 data of bird migration. 



Continued residence as naval surgeon in 

 the Tortugas gave Dr. Thompson an ex- 

 ceptional opportunity to learn the times of 

 arrival and departure of these summer 

 resident Terns, and to observe certain 

 significant events evidently related to the 

 times of their coming and going. 



He confirms the statement that the birds 

 return to their breeding grounds each year 

 at about the same time, and that all those 

 of the same species arrive within a few 

 days after the vanguard ; but adds, as new 

 information, the fact that the day after the 

 arrival of the earliest birds, nest-building 

 is begun, and within a week eggs are laid. 



Here, then, with no climatic complica- 

 tions, is an instance of migration to a regu- 

 larly frequented breeding range, with the 

 impelling cause so obviously a desire to 



reach a place in which the young may be 

 reared, that the nest-building is begun al- 

 most as soon as the birds reach the breed- 

 ing ground. The phenomena in the bird's 

 cycle of development, of which we have 

 spoken in the papers on the nesting season, 

 here succeed one another with such rapidity 

 that the relation becomes more than usually 

 apparent ; migration, mating, nest-build- 

 ing and egg-laying all occurring within a 

 period of little more than a week. 



No less interesting are Dr. Thompson's 

 records for the end of the nesting season. 

 When the object for which the birds came 

 is accomplished, and the young are able to 

 fly, there is no lingering. The departure 

 is as sudden as the arrival, and within a day 

 or two the birds have gone ; scattering, 

 doubtless, over the Caribbean and adjoin- 

 ing waters wherever they find good fishing ; 

 but in due time to receive an inward, 

 physiological prompting, which will, at the 

 proper season, carry them back to the nest- 

 ing ground. 



On another page we print an agreement 

 which has already been entered into by the 

 American Ornithologists' Union and a num- 

 ber of Audubon Societies, while other Audu- 

 bon Societies have it under consideration. 



From the practical point of view the terms 

 of this agreement appear to be exceptionally 

 favorable to the cause of bird protection. 

 For the first time in the history of the mil- 

 linery trade an opportunity is afforded to 

 extend the protection now given American 

 birds to many species of foreign birds, in- 

 cluding Gulls, Terns, Grebes, Herons, 

 Hummingbirds and song-birds; while the 

 traffic in aigrettes, which sentiment has thus 

 far not perceptibly affected, will cease. 



There is, it is true, a moral aspect to this 

 question, and it is possible that some mem- 

 bers of the Audubon Societies will refuse to 

 endorse an agreement in which they are 

 called upon to sanction, even passively, the 

 trade in feathers. But they should also 

 consider the moral responsibility of denying 

 to foreign birds the protection, so far as 

 their use in this country is concerned, which 

 this agreement offers them. It seems to us 

 that this proposition is deserving of a three 

 years' trial. 



