2u* /W, /t.^'41 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Gurdon Trumbull's article on the “American Wood- 
cock” that recently appeared in the Forest and Stream 
is one of the most vivacious, concise and beautiful mono- 
graphs that ever graced a sportsman’s journal. This is 
saying considerable, but it is a fact nevertheless. Mr. 
Trumbull is a practical ornithologist — by this I mean one 
who does not deal in any guesswork or hearsay evidence, 
but one who studiously finds out all the “ whys and where- 
fore” himself. He knows how to express his views as a 
naturalist so that one need not be a graduate from some 
university or college to understand what subject is being 
treated. Mr. Trumbull being a sportsman and knowing 
the needs of sportsmen, has done more in an ornithologi- 
cal way for them than all other writers combined. Mr. 
Trumbull’s book, “Names and Portraits of Game Birds,” 
possesses more real merit, intrinsic value and common 
sense to the square inch than any other work on these 
birds ever published. With that work you have no use 
for nine dead languages, keys, charts and other entangle- 
ments usually dealt in by those who have attempted to 
write about birds. What Mr. Trumbull writes about birds 
is written while in close contact with his subject, he hay- 
ing traveled thousands of miles to study some of his 
subjects. Nothing goes forth from his pen but what can 
be relied on to the fullest extent. Mr. Trumbull is a close 
student of bird life, and his opportune article on the 
American woodcock deserves more than a passing notice — 
it is a diamond of the first water. A. G. Collins. 
Hartford, Conn. 
46 
