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Bird - Lore 



2^irti=1Lore 



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, MABELOSGOOD ■WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XXI Published December 1, 1919 No. 6 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, one dollar aud 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 Tivo in the Hand 



Over two hundred colleagues and friends 

 of the late William Brewster have presented 

 the sum of $5,000 to the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union, as Trustee. This fund 

 will be known as the William Brewster 

 Memorial and not oftener than every two 

 years the Council of the Union, acting as 

 judge, will award the interest on it in the 

 form of a medal and an honorarium to the 

 author of what, in their opinion, is the most 

 important contribution to the ornithology 

 of the Western Hemisphere during the 

 period named. 



The donors of this gift have not only 

 paid a well-deserved tribute to the 

 memory of William Brewster, but they 

 have rendered an important service to the 

 science to which he devoted his life. 



Other representative scientific bodies in 

 this country, the National Academy of 

 Sciences, for example, have long been in a 

 position to acknowledge suitably note- 

 worthy work in their various fields, but 

 the American Ornithologists' Union has 

 not been able to recognize meritorious 

 achievement in its department of science. 

 The Brewster Memorial has now happily 

 made this possible. 



In this connection it is fitting to add that 

 through provisions of Mr. Brewster's will, 

 the Union, the Nuttall Club, the Charles- 

 ton, S. C. Museum, and the Massachusetts 

 Audubon Society will in due time each 

 receive $2,000, while the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology at Cambridge will re- 

 ceive his collection of birds and the sum 

 of $60,000. 



To Gain some conception of the effects 

 of the destructive forces which have been 

 continuously at work since the discovery 

 of this country, one should read the extract 

 from Dr. Roberts' paper on the water- 

 birds of Minnesota which we print in a 

 review of that publication on a preceding 

 page of this issue of Bird-Lore. We can 

 never hope to restore these primeval con- 

 ditions, but we should never cease to be 

 thankful that the efforts of bird-lovers, 

 exerted chiefly through the Audubon 

 Society, have been effective in checking 

 the hand of the destroyer. Under federal 

 protection, based upon sound principles of 

 science and conservation, and with a full 

 recognition of our duty to posterity, we 

 may be assured that, as far as present 

 circumstances permit, our migratory water- 

 fowl will have a square deal. 



It is greatly to be regretted that in giv 

 ing permission to the owners and employ- 

 ees of fish hatcheries to kill Grebes, Loons, 

 Gulls, Terns, Mergansers, American Bit- 

 terns, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue 

 Herons, Green Herons and Black-crowned 

 Night Herons at any time in hatchery 

 grounds, or waters, the Department of 

 Agriculture did not require hatchery 

 owners to secure a permit before allowing 

 them to destroy the birds in question. 

 The regulation, as it stands, opens the 

 door unnecessarily wide to wanton and 

 illegal shooting by persons who will inter- 

 pret its provisions to suii their own ends. 



With this number Bird-Lore completes 

 the first year of its majority. With other 

 serial publications it has been obliged to 

 meet war and post-war conditions which 

 have increased the cost of production and 

 distribution from 50 to 100 per cent, but 

 the magazine enters full-fledged manhood, 

 sound in wind and limb, and more than 

 ever eager to advance the cause for which 

 it stands. 



There was an unavoidable delay in 

 securing paper for the September-October 

 number, but thanks to the loyalty of the 

 Mt. Pleasant Press we have been spared 

 the trials which have forced scores of our 

 contemporaries to suspend publication. 



