Editorial 



435 



2^irb=lLore 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Contributing Editor, MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XX Published December 1, 1918 No. 6 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 

 Price in the United States, one dollar and fifty cents a year ; 

 outside the United States, one dollar and seventy-five cents , 

 postage paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1918, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Hand 



With the publication of this number, 

 Bird-Lore completes its twentieth year. 

 While this volume, like the nineteen it 

 follows, is, the lineal descendant of its 

 immediate predecessor, each one has 

 given birth to its successor without loss to 

 itself, and Bird-Lore at two years re- 

 mains as tangible an entity as Bird- 

 Lore at twenty now becomes. So we may 

 perhaps be permitted to express the satis- 

 faction with which our eyes rest upon the 

 row of volumes that mark the years of 

 Bird-Lore's life, with their thousands of 

 pages of text, their several thousands of 

 photographs, and their hundreds of colored 

 plates. They form not only a permanent 

 contribution to our knowledge of bird-life, 

 but they also contain a detailed history of 

 how our birds have gradually won their 

 proper place in the hearts of the people and 

 have finally been accorded their rights as 

 citizens. The twenty years of Bird-Lore's 

 existence almost cover the entire second of 

 the two periods which mark the actual 

 awakening of the country to a realization 

 of the value of its assets in bird-life. 



The first of these periods was in- 

 augurated by the formation of the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union in 1884. It 

 included also the organization of the 

 first Audubon Society, in effect a branch 

 of the Union, and lasted until 1895. Then 

 began the second movement, which, under 

 the inspiring leadership of William Dutcher, 

 developed into the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies. 



It was the A. O. U., with its direct off- 

 shoot, the Biological Survey, that laid the 

 foundation on which this structure could 

 be raised; it was the Audubon Society 

 which brought a knowledge of birds to the 

 people; it was the response of the people 

 that made bird protection possible. 



With the Federal Migratory Bird Law 

 an accomplished fact, the National Asso- 

 ciation is now relieved of the necessitj' 

 of watching the legislation of every state 

 and of combating the numberless attempts 

 to legalize the destruction of birds for 

 private gain. It can, therefore, devote its 

 efforts largely to the most profitable field 

 which it has before it — -the development 

 of its work with children. Prior to the war, 

 the growth of the Association's cooperation 

 with schools was advancing at a phenom- 

 enal rate, but with the establishment of the 

 Junior Red Cross the attention of the 

 children has naturally and properly been 

 focused on various phases of war-relief 

 work. 



The Red Cross, however, reminds 

 teachers, through its 'Teachers' Manual,' 

 of the importance of studying conservation 

 problems and, in this connection, it com- 

 mends the efforts of the National Associa 

 tion to place a knowledge of the value of 

 birds to man within reach of every child. 

 Even before the end of the war, therefore, 

 we may expect to see our work in the 

 schools develop at its former rapid rate of 

 increase, which means that the limit of its 

 growth will be marked only by the extent 

 of the resources of the National Associa- 

 tion. 



The influence of the work itself cannot 

 be overestimated. The school is often the 

 most direct and effective road to the home. 

 Nesting-boxes and feeding-stands made in 

 the schools find their natural resting-places 

 in home-gardens, and with them come all 

 the delightful possibilities of making friends 

 with the birds. 



Here and there will flame up the 'divine 

 spark' which is the priceless heritage of the 

 born ornithologist, but everywhere we may 

 hope to see that intimacy with our more 

 familiar birds which makes them the most 

 potent bonds between man and nature. 



