Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. 



M 



Michigan Ornitholoau to the Front. 



PROF. WALTER B. BARROWS. 



ICHIGAX birds are and ought to 

 be of special interest to Michigan 

 people. Facts about the bird-life 

 of this great state are far too scanty and 

 incomplete to be creditable to its residents, 

 and every honest, well planned effort to 

 increase this knowledge should be en- 

 couraged to the utmost. Such informa- 

 tion as is needed can be best collected and 

 recorded only by residents, those who, 

 month after 

 month and year 

 after year, keep 

 their eyes open 

 and their minds 

 alert f o r n e w 

 facts about bird- 

 n a t u r e , a n d 

 patiently and 

 intelligently 

 gather, com- 

 pare, sift and 

 arrange their 

 o b s e r v a t i ons, 

 always keeping 

 themselves in- 

 formed of the 

 work of others, 

 and always will- 

 ing to give 

 others the bene- 

 fit of their own 

 notes and ideas. 

 The best work 

 in any science 

 can be accom- 

 plished only by 

 knowing what 



has been done already, and taking advan- 

 tage of the foundation thus laid; this much 

 at least is indispensable. Often it is well 

 to know something of what others are now 

 attempting, and even to estimate roughly 

 what remains to be done, but these are in- 

 significant points in comparison with the 

 basis just mentioned. What remains to 

 be done is so great in comparison with 

 that already accomplished, that no live 

 man or woman can afford to waste time in 

 going over the work of another, unless it 

 has been so carelessly done as to merit 

 entire disregard. 



Geographically, Michigan is one of the 



most interesting states in the Union for 

 bird study. Stretching from the southern 

 prairies into the almost sub-arctic forests 

 of the north, it includes great areas of the 

 three principal life zones of the United 

 States — the Austral, the Transition, and 

 the Boreal, and as yet only the start has 

 been made toward defining accurately the 

 lines of demarkation between ' these im- 

 portant zones. 



The deforesting of the state has made 

 remarkable changes in its avi-fauna, and 

 some of these changes are still in progress; 

 while the rapid increase in cultivated areas, 



the introduction 

 — i of new varieties 

 of fruit tree>. 

 grasses, weeds, 

 and insects, and 

 the d r a i n a 2' e 

 a n d disappear- 

 ance of exten- 

 sive s w a m p s 

 and marshes, 

 have combined 

 to alter i n a 

 marked degree 

 the conditions 

 under which 

 m a n y o f o u r 

 birds continue 

 to exist. 



The Bulletin 

 of the Michigan 

 Ornitholoo'ic a 1 

 Club should be- 

 come at once the 

 medium f o r a 

 most stimulat- 

 ing and helpful 

 interchange of 

 experiences 

 among our bird lovers and students of 

 nature, and it is not too much to predict 

 that its pages will furnish more informa- 

 tion as to Michigan birds than all the 

 pages of all the other bird journals of the 

 world, besides giving us the cream of bird 

 news from those parts of the world which 

 are so unfortunate as to lie outside our 

 borders. 



The advent of this journal marks an 

 epoch in the ornithological history of the 

 state; let us see that the venture is at once 

 placed beyond the danger of an experiment, 

 and that the bulletin shall grow in popular- 

 ity and usefulness with each successive 



