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THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



The Mumford Pictures 



The well-known Mumford bird pictures are the most widely known 

 and usually the most available. Four hundred species of birds are repre- 

 sented each by a colored plate seven inches by nine inches. These are for 

 the most part from photographs of stuffed specimens. Their publication 

 began in 1897, since which time many millions have been distributed. Last 

 year (1920) the publisher, Mr. A. W. Mumford of Chicago, sold three 

 million copies, this being the 23rd year of their publication. It would not 

 be easy to exaggerate the importance of the service these pictures have 

 performed in awakening an interest in bird life. They have appeared as 

 inserts in magazines and in standard works on bird life, and they have 

 been distributed in practically every city and village in the United States 

 and Canada. They are doubtless to be found in every country on the globe. 

 In the course of publication more than $60,000.00 was spent in plates and 

 the business success of the enterprise does not lessen the credit due the 

 publisher for so important a contribution to the study of bird life. The 

 great usefulness of the pictures, however, does not justify overlooking 

 some very serious defects. In many instances poorly prepared and mounted 

 specimens were photographed against crude and inharmonious backgrounds 

 and thus sorry looking portraits of some of the most beautiful forms of 

 bird life have been produced and, as it were, standardized by their whole- 

 sale distribution. On the other hand pictures like that of the passenger 

 pigeon are almost flawless representations of the living birds. 



The N. A. A. S. Pictures 



Some years ago the National Association of Audubon Societies began 

 the publication of bird pictures in color to accompany the text of their 

 educational leaflets. These pictures are five and one-half inches by eight 

 and one-half inches and up to the present time one hundred of them have 

 been published. These pictures are reproductions of water color studies of 

 bird life by such artists as Fuertes, and Horsfall and Ned Sawyer, and 

 with a few exceptions exemplify the highest achievement of printing in 

 color. In contrast with the Mumford pictures these pictures show the 



