15 
provinces are as a rule without recent authoritative lists of their 
birds. In many cases nothing but scantiest data for their compilation 
are available. It is only by the study of many local areas that such broader 
lists can be satisfactorily written, and in such local studies as these much 
good work can be done by the amateur. It must not be assumed that such 
local faunal work is easy; in fact, when conscientiously done it becomes 
one of the most difficult fields of ornithology. Ten years spent on such 
work assisted by all available literature and the advice of experts is little 
enough to form a satisfactory basis for work. Literature must be searched, 
weight of authorities estimated, evidence verified, specimens accurately 
identified, and all must be subject to the observer’s experience and the 
probabilities. Knowledge of adjoining localities and general and local 
literature is indispensable for this. To satisfy modern standards of accuracy 
the making of a faunal list is one of the severest tests of ornithological 
ability. 
The economic effect of bird life is an important study, and one 
in which the greatest caution is necessary. General impressions are 
so often misleading that conclusions should be founded only on irre- 
futable evidence. Stomach examination of what has actually been taken 
into the alimentary canal is practically the only positive evidence of food 
habits and in some cases leads to surprising results. No species should be 
condemned until a thorough study by this method has been made by 
experienced investigators. Such a study is beyond the amateur, but he 
can assist greatly by preserving the stomachs of those specimens he collects 
in the course of his work and forwarding them to the Victoria Memorial 
Museum where they may be either immediately examined or stored for 
reference later. Field observations of the economic status of species when 
accurately observed and reported are often of great value, but must be 
used with the greatest caution. 
Of late years “banding” has become an established and valuable 
method of bird study. Numbered aluminum bands with return address 
are locked about the legs of nestlings and trapped birds in such a manner 
as not to interfere with their normal activities, and the bearers are released. 
Full records are kept of species, date, locality, age, and circumstance in 
each case. Returns from these banded specimens are coming in now in 
considerable numbers and we are getting exact, demonstrable knowledge 
of them, where hitherto we had nothing but guesswork or analogy to go 
upon. The practice of systematically banding on a limited home area 
throughout the season, and year after year, has been particularly fruitful 
and has opened up an entirely new field of interesting research to the am- 
ateur observer of limited opportunity. Such work, of course, has to be 
regulated to prevent unqualified persons from participating and the con- 
fusion of duplicate records, bands, and systems. In Canada, such work is 
under the control and supervision of the National Parks Branch of the 
Department of the Interior, who issue the necessary permits to anyone 
wishing to engage in this form of research in Canada. 
A serious word should be said on the much discussed question of the 
collection of specimens as a method of bird study. Various persons take 
various interests in bird study. Some are satisfied just to see or hear 
birds about them, and take little interest in what they are, what they do, 
or what they are named. This is, of course, a perfectly legitimate limita- 
tion, but there are other interests without which advancement in knowledge 
