Editorial. 135 



THE WILSON BULLETIN. 



A Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Study of Living Birds. 

 Official Org an of the Wilson Ornithological Chapter of the Agassiz 

 Association. 



Edited by LYNDS JONES. 



PUBLISHED BY THE CHAPTER, AT OBERLIN, OHIO. 



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Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Fifty Cents a year, Fifteen Cents a num- 

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Price in all countries in the International Postal Union, Sixty-Five Cents a year, Twenty 

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 Subscriptions may be sent to Lynds Jones, Oberlin, Ohio, or to Mr. Frank L. Burns, Ber- 



wyn, Penn., or to Mr. John W. Daniel, Jr., 3146 Q street, N.W., Washington, D. C 



EDITORIAL. 



The index for the present volume will be issued with the 

 March, 1903, Bulletin. 



The present number of the Bulletin marks the close of its ninth 

 volume since we began the present plan of publication. From a 

 small beginning our official organ has come to fill a place in the 

 study of our birds which we may well point to with pride. 

 While the development has been slow it has been sure. As the 

 work of our organization has developed papers of more than 

 usual value have been published as a part of the regular series 

 of Bulletins. These papers or studies along particular lines of 

 work show what may be accomplished by combined efforts upon 

 such phases of study as few if any of us might hope to compass 

 alone. In the broader subjects of ecological studies there is a 

 field for work of the highest value and interest which we can 

 well consider. The systematic work is well cared for by those 

 best fitted for it, and may be safely left to them in the main, 

 while we develop the work of more immediate significance to 

 the economic interests of the country. Some of these are such 

 studies as the food habits, and closely associated with this the 

 time during which the birds are present, and their numbers dur- 

 ing that time. Food habits are known to differ, with many 

 species, during different times of the year and under different 

 conditions. Other more or less closely related subjects are the 

 period of incubation and the period during which the young re- 

 main in the nest, and the time during which they are fed after 



