Editorials 



209 



i&irti Eore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THF. AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. VI Published December 1. 1904 No. 6 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price ill the United States, Canada and Mexico 

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

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED. 1904, BY PRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush is IVorlh Two in the Hand 



The most exacting critics of a magazine 

 illiistration are undoubtedly the artist whose 

 drawing it reproduces and the author whose 

 text it accompanies. It is natural, there- 

 fore, that, among the many commendations 

 of our colored Warbler plates, which we 

 have received during the past year, the fol- 

 lowing from Mr. Fuertes and Professor 

 Cooke have afforded us the most pleasure 

 and satisfaction : 



"I have been surprised and gratified by 

 the success you have achieved in reproducing 

 the Warbler plates. I should not have sup- 

 posed it possible to represent so accurately 

 the delicate buff and chestnut tones found 

 in some of the female and young plumages, 

 even with more colors at your disposal. The 

 results are, however, more than merely 

 satisfactory, and I think you are to be con- 

 gratulated for having deviseil so adequate a 

 means of giving us reliable pictures of our 

 Warblers in all their important plumages. 

 Very sincerely yours, 



Louis Agassiz Fuertes." 



" You are setting a new mark for those 

 striving to get the best possible bird pic- 

 tures. These Warbler plates are easily the 

 best things in the line I have ever seen, and 

 a person would have to be pretty blind that 

 could not identify a Warbler from 

 them. They have the combination, so 

 hard to secure, of artistic excellence and 

 scientific accuracy, ^'ou^s truly, 



Wf.i.i.-s W. Cooke." 



The success whirli has attended the ef- 

 forts of the American Museum of Natural 

 History to make its collections of practical 

 value to the teachers of New \'ork City by 

 supplying them with specimens, as reported 

 in this number of Bird- Lore, suggests the 

 adoption of a similar plan by other museums 

 and natural history societies. As far as 

 birds are concerned, possibly the Audubon 

 Societies might add small traveling bird 

 collections to their circulating lectures anil 

 libraries. 



Doubtless ornithologists throughout the 

 country would donate specimens for an ob- 

 ject of this nature, and the plan could, there- 

 fore, be carried out not only without entailing 

 the destruction of a single bird, but it would 

 bring into use numbers of specimens which, 

 having been studied, are now lying idle in 

 cabinet drawers. 



For class-room use, at least in the lower 

 grades, the birds, in our opinion, should be 

 mounted. Wholly aside from the greater 

 educational value of the mounted bird, a 

 bird-skin too closely resembles a ('ead bird 

 to make it desirable teaching material for 

 children. Ihe mounted bird, on the con- 

 trary, to the imaginative child mind, stands 

 for the living creature, and is as much more 

 effective than a drawing in creat'ng a defi- 

 nite, realistic impression, as a doll is better 

 than a doll's picture. 



While the uneducated natives of the 

 countries in which Flamingos nest still gen- 

 erally believe that, when incubating. Fla- 

 mingos straddle their nests with a leg dang- 

 ling on each side, we had supposed that 

 among naturalists, at least, this question 

 was settled years ago. 



We learn, however, from the October 

 ' Ibis ' that M. F. de Chapel, who observed 

 Flamingos' nests in southern France in 

 June, 1904, "gives measurements of the 

 nests and the parent birds, from which he 

 draws the conclusion that the latter sit with 

 one leg on each side of the nest, as equilib- 

 rium would otherwise be impossible." Ref- 

 erence to the photograph on page 194 of this 

 issue of Bird-Lore and to others in 'The 

 Century' for this month, showing hundreds 

 of sitting birds, will emphasize the danger 

 of "drawing conclusions." 



