216 
THE WILSON BULLETIN— December, 1922 
woodland and natural conditions generally. There have been, on 
account of the changes in bird environment, many changes in 
the bird population. Species have become readjusted to new 
environments in some cases; some have increased and some have 
decreased in numbers, and a few have seemingly disappeared, 
altogether. Data on the bird life during these changes and on 
the primitive homes of birds in the region is of much value to 
ornithology, and many of these data have been gathered by the 
Wilson Club members and permanently recorded in the pages of 
their Bulletin. 
It is outdoor ornithology that attracts the amateur; and 
professionals come from amateurs. It is important, then, to aid 
the amateur, and this has been a function of the Wilson Ornith- 
ological Club. It has encouraged amateurs to become associate 
members and to subscribe to the Bulletin and to use its pages 
for publication of their important observations. With a care- 
ful and discriminating editor like Dr. Lynds Jones, there has 
been little chance of unscientific material getting published; and 
as far as l can judge no such material has yet crept into the 
pages of the Wilson Bulletin. Advice as to proper methods of 
bird study, very useful to beginners, has been given by the Bulle- 
tin, especially through editorials. Amateurs need to have their 
attention called to the value of intensive bird studies to prevent 
many of them going on thinking that they are exhausting the 
possibilities of field work when they are naming and listing the 
species they see on long hikes. They have had good examples 
of thorough studies of comparatively small subjects through such 
papers, published in the Bulletin, as, The Monograph of the 
Flicker; The Broad-winged Hawk, The Oberlin Crackle Boost, 
and the Nest Life of the Catbird. Biography of great naturalists 
is always stimulating to young naturalists, and the account of 
the life of Alexander Wilson that ran through several numbers 
of the Bulletin certainly must have contributed to the enthusiasm 
of beginners. Amateurs as well as professionals, therefore, have 
found membership in the Wilson Club of value to them in their 
work. 
The Wilson Ornithological Club has been remarkably success- 
ful in obtaining the united efforts of field ornithologists in mak- 
ing special studies, such as distribution through the census meth- 
od, and migration, through records of occurences and through 
the relatively new method of bird banding. At present the 
Bulletin has a Bird Banding Department, and seven pages in 
