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Bird - Lore 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



ContributingEditor.MABELOSGOOD^VRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XXI Published August 1. 1919 No. 4 



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. 1919, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Hand 



In resuming his editorial duties, the 

 Editor gratefully acknowledges the support 

 which he has received from John T. 

 Nichols during the past eight months of 

 Bird-Lore's existence. A magazine can- 

 not well be taken on prolonged journeys 

 where mail connections are infrequent 

 and uncertain. Nor can it be left at home 

 unless one can find the proper person to 

 whose care it may be committed. The 

 Audubon Departments fortunately were 

 in hands which long have had them in 

 charge, but there were left the 'body' 

 of the magazine, the 'make-up' of the 

 whole, with such allied matters as the 

 annual index, Christmas Bird Census, 

 'The Season' (Mr. Rogers, to whom we are 

 so deeply indebted for editorial supervision 

 of these departments, being in service), 

 reviews, editorials, and a correspondence 

 which consumes almost more time than 

 all the others put together. No one, we 

 think, who has examined the last four 

 issues of Bird-Lore will doubt (the 

 present Editor does not) that Mr. Nichols 

 was the 'proper person' for the job he 

 was kind enough to take upon his 

 shoulders, and we are glad to be able 

 to announce that in the course of post- 

 war adjustments he will remain on 

 Bird-Lore's staff in charge of 'The 

 Season.' Mr. Nichols will also review 

 'The Auk,' replacing Dr. Dwight who, 

 after years of service, claims the right 

 of retirement, a claim to which we re- 

 luctantly accede. 



We observe that in Bird-Lore for 

 May- June, our predecessor made some 

 pertinent remarks concerning the ver- 

 nacular or 'common' names of birds. This 

 is a subject in which Bird-Lore is es- 

 pecially interested, since it is our custom 

 in this magazine to use (except in certain 

 formal cases) only the common names of 

 North American birds, a custom, we may 

 add, for which we have at times been 

 criticized. We maintain, however, that 

 the 'Check-List' of the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union supplies us with a 

 standard nomenclature of common as well 

 as of scientific names. The former, indeed, 

 are far more 'standard' than the latter. 

 Bird-Lore aims to use these common 

 names consistently and we contend that 

 this custom renders unnecessary and 

 pedantic the employment of the scientific 

 name also, except in those comparatively 

 rare cases (e. g. Coot) where the 'Check- 

 List' name may not be in general use. 



In giving only one common name as 

 well as only one scientific name for each 

 species, the authors of the 'Check- List' 

 were not infrequently obliged to choose 

 from many local names and in other cases 

 they arbitrarily replaced long-standing 

 names with others which, in their opinion, 

 were better fitted for the birds in question. 



The latest edition of the 'Check-List' 

 was published in 1910, and it is not too 

 soon, therefore, to ask to what extent their 

 rulings have influenced popular usage. The 

 reply is that it depends largely whether 

 the name in question applies to a widely 

 known bird or to one familiar only to bird 

 students. A library of 'Check-Lists' will 

 not change a 'Peep' or 'Ox-eye' into a 

 Semipalmated Sandpiper, make the 'Quail' 

 universally Bob-white, or the 'Partridge' 

 a Ruffed Grouse. On the other hand, it is 

 only the older ornithologists who remember 

 that the Myrtle Warbler was the Yellow- 

 rump, the Magnolia, the Black and Yellow, 

 or the Yellow Palm Warbler the Yellow 

 Redpoll. Knowledge of the existence of 

 the last-named birds is, as a rule, acquired 

 only from books and they are consequently 

 known by their book names. 



