An Eighteen-Year Retrospect 143 



birds. For the first time in the history of ornithology, trained biologists have 

 devoted an entire nesting season to the continuous study of certain species, 

 and the results obtained by Watson, Herrick, Finley, and others have, in a high 

 degree, both scientific value and popular interest. 



No small part of the educational value of work of this kind is due to the 

 photographic illustrations by which it is usually accompanied, and bird study 

 with a camera may be said to be the most novel and, in many respects, the 

 most important development in ornithological field work during the past fif- 

 teen years. Not only has the fascination of camera hunting itself stimulated 

 the bird photographer, but the results he has obtained have at times had a 

 commercial value, which has enabled him to pursue his labors in before-un- 

 explored fields. In consequence, in the books of Job, Finley, Dugmore, and 

 others, and in numerous magazine articles, we now have thousands of graphic 

 records, not one of which existed fifteen years ago, depicting the home life of 

 some of our rarest as well as commonest birds, and possessed of a power for 

 conveying and diffusing information with which the written word cannot 

 compare. 



Here, too, should be mentioned the work of the ornithological artists 

 who, led by Fuertes, have given us an unsurpassed series of faithful and 

 beautiful portraits of our birds, to the educational value of which, in no 

 small measure, is to be attributed the existing widespread interest in bird 

 study. 



It is the growth of this interest which has chiefly distinguished the past 

 two decades; for, much as they have been marked by activity in various 

 branches of ornithology, it is less as an exponent of natural laws than as a 

 most attractive form of wild life that the bird has made its appeal. In the his- 

 tory of North American ornithology, therefore, this period may well stand as 

 the Epoch of Popular Bird Study. Where, in 1895, there was one person who 

 could claim acquaintance with our commoner birds, today there are hundreds ; 

 and the plea for the development of our inherent love of birds, which was 

 made in the first edition of the 'Handbook,' has been answered with an effect- 

 iveness few would have predicted. 



Opportunity alone was needed to bring to its fulfilment this inborn interest 

 in creatures which have such manifold claims to our attention, and with which 

 we may become so intimately associated. This opportunity has come in pop- 

 ular manuals of bird study, which, in the aggregate, have been sold by hundreds 

 of thousands; in the introduction of nature study in the schools, in the for- 

 mation of bird clubs and classes, through the far-reaching and important 

 work of the National and State Audubon Societies, through popular lectures, 

 through magazines devoted to bird study, and the greater attention of the 

 press in general to bird studies — particularly such as are illustrated by photo- 

 graphs — through increased museum facihties, and through the closer relation 

 everywhere existing between the professional or advanced student and the 



