JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



then as our articles are mainly of a 

 technical nature it will be necessary 

 for us to see that the combined knowl- 

 edge of the members be brought to 

 bear on every paper before it is per- 

 mitted to seek the publicity of print. 



Every society organ that I am 

 acquainted with is in the hands of a 

 board of editors selected for their 

 particular fitness to serve in their re- 

 spective positions. They have their 

 literary editors, their exchange editors, 

 their local editors, and business man- 

 agers. In this division of the work 

 the societies are more largely repre- 

 sented and the result more largely re- 

 presentative. 



I believe the time has come for the 

 Maine Ornithological Society to adopt 

 such a measure. By so doing we 

 might add to our Journal at least two 

 new departments. One of thete 

 might well be the department of popu- 

 lar ornithology. The scientific side of 

 our work has always been well repre- 

 sented, but there are many of our 

 readers who do not care whether a 

 typical "umbellus" has ever been 

 found in our state or not, and who 

 spurn to wade through argument to 

 establish the validity of Larus argenta- 

 tus smithsonianus, (Coues). Yet 

 these same readers devour with avidity 

 Mr. Dills paper on the Brown Pelican, 

 and Mr. Noble's "Encounter between 

 a Loggerhead Shrike and a Snake." 



The other department which should 

 be entrusted to the joint editorship 

 of three of our best observers, should 

 be the life histories of some of the 

 families found in our state. The 

 family of wood warblers, if written up 

 as suggested, would furnish work for 

 more than one edition of our Journal, 

 and the completed work would be a 

 monograph that would be in demand 

 the world over. Our numbers are now 

 large enough to warrant the undertak- 

 ing of such a stupendous work, and if 



the board to whom it was entrusted 

 should so divide their labors that one 

 should be concerned chiefly in the 

 collecting of data, the other two could 

 devote themselves to arranging and 

 classifying the collected material and 

 harmonizing it with their own obser- 

 vations. 



In connection with this thought it 

 seems fitting to consider the distribu- 

 tion in the name of the society of suit- 

 able data blanks for the use of the 

 members. Such blanks could be model- 

 ed softer those issued by the Agricul- 

 tural Department at Washington, and, 

 with the necessary changes, would do 

 much to collect the scattered observa- 

 tions of the wide field entrusted to 

 our care. And if no immediate use 

 were made of them, they would serve 

 as a fund of information for future 

 bird essayists, second only in value 

 to that unique collection of lantern 

 slides yearly increasing in the hands 

 of Prof. Lee of Bowdoin college. One 

 column of these blanks should be so 

 arranged that the observers could 

 state whether a skin or mounted speci- 

 men had been retained, and where 

 either may be found. 



This would enable the reviewers to 

 accurately locate such specimens as 

 might be desired for examination, and 

 would settle once for all the question 

 of identification. I sincerely hope you 

 will take some action on these all ab- 

 sorbing questions. 



In view of the fact that our publi- 

 cation goes the lengtn and breadth 

 of our land, and in accordance with 

 the broader principle that every indi- 

 vidual and every organization of in- 

 dividuals should stand for something 

 definite. I recommend that we formu- 

 late the principle which shall hereaf- 

 ter govern the acceptance of articles 

 for publication. I believe the time has 

 come for us to state positively our 

 position in the matter of "takes" and 



