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Bird - Lore 



Mth'Tiott 



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. XXIV Published February 1, 1922 No. 1 



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, 1922, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Hand 



Bird-Lore extends its cordial thanks to 

 the hundreds of observers who have con- 

 tributed to its twenty-second Christmas 

 Census. This annual event has now become 

 an institution. Doubtless a fair proportion 

 of the bird students who took part in it this 

 year were not born when it was inaugurated 

 and we hope that their children and chil- 

 dren's children will keep this tryst with the 

 birds at Christmas time. 



The scientific value of these thousands of 

 definite records from throughout our country 

 has become increasingly obvious. While it 

 is not to be expected that the bird-life of the 

 winter can be shown in a day, or even that 

 the bird-life of a day can be recorded in any 

 part of it, it is nevertheless clear that the 

 lists of birds sent us give, on the whole, an 

 accurate conception of the numbers and 

 kinds of birds present during mid-winter. 

 One ornithologist, known for the thorough- 

 ness and accuracy of this field work, tells us 

 that his census this year contains one less 

 species but exactly the same number of indi- 

 viduals which he found in the same region 

 three years ago. A coincidence no doubt, in 

 part, but significant nevertheless. 



It would be most instructive to put a 

 stranger in the territory of the local orni- 

 thologist and compare the results of their 

 day's observations. Assuming that in orni- 

 thological knowledge, keenness, and powers 

 of observation, both were equal, the visiting 

 man would, of course, be at a great disad- 

 vantage. And this gives point to the fact that 

 most of Bird-Lore's censuses are made by 



observers thoroughly familiar with their 

 ground. Their route is planned with a full 

 knowledge of local conditions governing the 

 distribution of bird-life in winter, and the 

 real census enthusiast prepares for the grand 

 'round-up' by preliminary surveys which 

 make him familiar with affairs in his part of 

 the bird world up to the very day on which 

 he takes his final count. These factors all 

 combine to make the censuses truly repre- 

 sentative of our winter avifauna. 



Wholly aside from their present and future 

 reference value, these lists of names and 

 figures, which look hopelessly uninteresting to 

 the uninitiated, perform, we believe, a num- 

 ber of important functions. Their making 

 stimulates wholesome competition and ac- 

 curacy in observation, and their reading 

 gives one mental pictures of the numbers and 

 species of birds to be found in other parts of 

 the country during the winter which are not 

 elsewhere available. Furthermore, these 

 pages of names include not only a census of 

 birds, but, in a measure, a census of bird 

 students. We know of many regular con- 

 tributors to the census who have never met 

 but have become correspondents, to their 

 mutual pleasure and advantage through the 

 medium of the Christmas Census. 



Bird-Lore has already expressed its opin- 

 ion of the farmer whose ill-advised energy 

 prompts him periodically to clear-up' his 

 boundary lines and field borders by ruthlessly 

 cutting off the vegetation which had sprung 

 up along them. 



With much satisfaction, therefore, we read 

 in 'Community Bird Refuges' (noticed on 

 page 52) Mr. McAtee's arraignment of this 

 custom and the reasons why it is not only 

 needless but defeats the very end the farmer 

 is supposed to have in view. 



Mr. McAtee writes: "There can be no 

 doubt that suppression of roadside vegetation 

 is a potent factor in restricting the numbers 

 of birds, and the ever-increasing tendency 

 to allow fence rows the minimum of space 

 has the same effect. Farmers may gain a 

 planting row about every field by the destruc- 

 tion of vegetation along fences, but they lose 

 the services of the birds, their best allies in 

 fighting insects." 



