154 Dr. Leon Patrick—Whittier Ornithological Academy



WHITTIER ORNITHOLOGICAL ACADEMY


By Dr. Leon Patrick, President


Reason, observation, and experience—that dependable trinity of

science—have taught us that the greatest pleasures of life are those

that are available to everyone. They arise from the simple, funda¬

mental things in nature—the beautiful clouds, the ocean with its broad

beaches, the mountains, lakes, streams, flowers, trees, and, most

intriguing of all, the birds.


Birds are the dominating feature of nature, they have the greatest

activity, the greatest emotional variety; they show the highest

extremes of beauty in colour and pattern, they have the most striking

and highly developed courtship of any group of creatures, and their

songs are by far the most beautiful and elaborate music that the world

knew before the coming of man.


Birds, in fact, are nature at her best, and we who are interested in

conservation are coming to understand that bird life forms an ever-

changing background for human life—indispensable, yet always

fanciful. And we learn why the birds, with their twenty-odd thousand

known species, are man’s greatest allies in the struggle of survival.


Yet in spite of their sesthetic appeal and their economic value

to mankind many beautiful and interesting species are fast nearing

extinction. Like our Passenger Pigeon, the Carolina Conure, and the

Heath Hen they will soon be but a haunting memory—unless some

concerted, organized, practical plan or conservation is inaugurated

to save them.


Others have said all this to a careless and indifferent public. But

mere talk, however tangible and sincere, accomplishes nothing. Some¬

body has to do something—action is what is needed.


Realizing this, a group of far-seeing and unselfish individuals have

organized the Whittier Ornithological Academy—the which is a

Foundation chartered by the State of California “ for the purpose of

study, observation, and research along ornithological lines, with

especial attention being directed to aviculture as a practical medium

of perpetuating those rare and interesting species of birds, both native

and foreign, that are threatened with or nearing extinction.”



