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Bird -Lore 



iStrti'Eore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. VI Published October 1. 1904 No. 5 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

 twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, post- 

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1904, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two iti the Hand 



We have before remarked that effective 

 tird protection means not only preventing 

 the decrease of birds but taking measures 

 which will result in their increase. We con- 

 sequently are glad to respond to a general 

 demand for information in regard to suitable 

 types of bird ' boxes' or houses. It is pro- 

 posed to devote a large part of an early 

 number of Bird-Lore to this subject, and 

 we ask the assistance of our readers in secur- 

 ing photographs of bird homes which they 

 have found to meet the demands of various 

 bird tenants. 



In the 'Atlantic Monthly' for July John 

 Burroughs discusses in a logical and con- 

 vincing way 'The Literary Treatment of 

 Nature.' The article should be read, and 

 read carefully, by every one interested in the 

 popular presentation of natural history sub- 

 jects. The literary naturalist should have 

 as much regard for facts as his scientific 

 brother. It is in his presentation of them 

 that he will depart from the formal and 

 ■stereotyped methods or science. 



The teciinical scientist addresses co- labor- 

 ers in a similar field. At the outset he is 

 assured of their attention and comprehen- 

 sion. A place of publication is provided 

 in the Proceedings of learned Societies or 

 Bulletins of Museums. He is not subject 

 to editorial dictation nor imder the slightest 

 obligation to make himself interesting. He 

 clothes his statements in the language of 



science, a garb well designed to disguise 

 the most attractive form. 



The literary naturalist, on the other hand, 

 must primarily be interesting. This is an 

 editorial requirement. He writes for publi- 

 cations whose existence depends on the 

 pecuniary support they receive from the 

 public. His articles must help sell the 

 medium in which they appear. Now the 

 literary naturalist may command the public 

 ear in a variety of ways. He may be an 

 unusually keen student of nature whose ac- 

 counts of what he has observed, though 

 simple in form, are readable because of their 

 inherent merit. He may see no better than 

 the rest of us but possess descriptive powers 

 which, as Mr. Burroughs says, will enlist 

 our sympathies and arouse our enthusiasm 

 by so presenting his facts that their relation 

 to our lives is emphasized. Or he may 

 'interpret' what he has seen or heard. 

 Such interpretation, as Mr. Burroughs 

 clearly points out, is not a scientific explan- 

 ation, demonstration or hypothesis. It is 

 not expressed in the vocabulary of science 

 but in terms of his own personality, — an 

 interpretation of self. So Mr. Burroughs 

 remarks, "What do Ruskin's writings upon 

 nature interpret? They interpret Ruskin" ; 

 and in the same issue of the 'Atlantic' 

 the comment is strikingly verified by Ruskin 

 himself, who in a letter to Charles Eliot 

 Norton, writes, "When I am happy, a 

 sparrow's chirp is delicious to me. But it 

 is not the chirp that makes me happy but I 

 that make // sweet." 



Unfortunately, the desire to treat natural 

 history subjects successfully in a literary 

 way does not always lead to its fulfilment. 

 The power to enjoy and appreciate does not 

 imply the power to express. Hence the 

 many manuscripts descriptive of experiences 

 afield which fail to convey to the reader one 

 thrill of the joy the writer labors fruitlessly 

 to share with him. He lacks the power to 

 transmute his pleasure into pleasure-giving 

 words and sentences ; he cannot interpret. 



It is left to him, however, to see. If he 

 cannot place an old fact in a new light, per- 

 haps he can discover a new fact, when the 

 world and consequently the editor will ever 

 be ready to listen to him. 





