Chapter D: C. Heath & Co. have in preparation an elementary bird book by Fannie

Hardy Eckstorm. The book is designed for use as a supplementary science reader, and it is the author's object to teach children what to see and how to see it; and, at the same time, to provide them with something to do.

The May issue of 'Primary Education' (Educational Publishing Co.) is a 'Bird Day Number,' and contains numerous contributions of value to teachers and students of birds.

'Our Dumb Animals,' the vigorously edited organ of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says of Bird-Lore: "We recommend this publication to ex-Presidents Cleveland and Harrison. _It would have much interested President Lincoln._"

'By the Way-Side' is the name of a bright little four-page bi-weekly issued by Helen M. Boynton, 118 Michigan Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at one cent a copy. It is devoted to "birds, butterflies, trees, flowers, insects and fishes, and deserves the support of everyone interested in popularizing the study of these subjects."

=Bird-Lore=

A Bi-monthly Magazine
Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES

=Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN=
=Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY=

=====================================================
Vol. 1 June, 1899 No. 3
=====================================================

=SUBSCRIPTION RATES.=

Price in the United States, Canada, and Mexico,
twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, postage
paid.

Subscriptions may be sent to the Publishers, at
Englewood, New Jersey, or 66 Fifth avenue, New
York City.

Price in all countries in the International Postal
Union, twenty-five cents a number, one dollar and
a quarter a year, postage paid. Foreign agents,
Macmillan and Company, Ltd., London.

-----------------------------------------------------
Manuscripts for publication, books, etc., for review,
should be sent to the Editor at Englewood,
New Jersey.
-----------------------------------------------------
Advertisements should be sent to the Publishers
at Englewood, New Jersey, or 66 Fifth
avenue, New York City.
-----------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHTED, 1899, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN.
-----------------------------------------------------
Bird-Lore's Motto:

_A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand._
-----------------------------------------------------

It has recently been remarked that the field ornithologists of to-day are of two kinds: first, those who collect; second, those who observe. The status of these two types of ornithologists, and the parts they play in the advancement of the science of ornithology, is a subject of the utmost importance to every one interested in the study of birds.

A consideration of it leads us to review briefly the progress which has been made in our knowledge of North American birds during the past twenty-five years. At the beginning of this period the Smithsonian Institution contained the only large collection of North American birds in the world, and our data concerning the exact distribution and relationships of even our commonest species was of the most meager character. Since that date the publication of Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's 'History of North American Birds', of Coues' 'Key' and Ridgway's 'Manual'; the organization of the American Ornithologists' Union and of the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture, and the establishment of several natural history museums, have given a wonderful impetus to the collecting of birds. Naturalists have explored every corner of the eastern United States, and, with almost equal thoroughness, the western states, and the fruits of their labors are shown in the large series of birds now possessed by our leading museums. In fact, we have now reached a point where only a thoroughly trained ornithologist or his personally directed assistants can make collections which will be of real scientific value. Indiscriminate collecting, therefore, particularly in the eastern United States, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred will only result in the duplication of material already existing.

Not only has there been a great advance in the requirements of collecting, but in the study of the specimens collected, and the systematic ornithologist who would hope to add anything to our knowledge of the distribution and relationships of any group of North American birds, must possess advantages which can be afforded only by well-equipped museums.

Turning, now, to the other class of ornithologists, the collectors of facts, we find that they have been far less active than collectors of skins. Thus, while we rarely or never refer to Wilson or Audubon or Nuttall for information concerning the systematic position of a species, these early writers are still authorities on facts connected with the life histories of many of our birds.

This subject has been brought very forcibly to our mind by two papers published in this number of Bird-Lore, and, without going into details, we wish collectors of birds and their eggs would read carefully the articles entitled 'The Cardinal at the Hub' and 'Home-Life in a Chimney,' and then tell us frankly whether they do not think that the facts therein set forth constitute a more valuable contribution to the science of ornithology than a Cardinal's skin and five white egg-shells. If they are both discriminating and sincere, we believe they will admit the truth of Bird-Lore's motto.

=The Audubon Societies=

"_You cannot with a scalpel find the poet's soul,
Nor yet the wild bird's song._"

Edited by Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright (President of the Audubon Society of the State of Connecticut), Fairfield, Conn., to whom all communications relating to the work of the Audubon and other Bird Protective Societies should be addressed.

DIRECTORY OF STATE AUDUBON SOCIETIES

With names and addresses of their Secretaries.

=New Hampshire= Mrs. F. W. Batchelder, Manchester.
=Massachusetts= Miss Harriet E. Richards, care Boston Society
of Natural History, Boston.
=Rhode Island= Mrs. H. T. Grant, Jr., 187 Bowen street,
Providence.
=Connecticut= Mrs. Henry S. Glover, Fairfield.
=New York= Miss Emma H. Lockwood, 243 West Seventy-fifth
street, New York City.
=New Jersey= Miss Anna Haviland, 53 Sandford Ave.,
Plainfield, N. J.
=Pennsylvania= Mrs. Edward Robins, 114 South Twenty-first
street, Philadelphia.
=District of Columbia= Mrs. John Dewhurst Patten, 3033 P street,
Washington.
=Wheeling, W. Va.= Elizabeth I. Cummins, 1314 Chapline street,
(branch of Penn Society) Wheeling.
=Ohio= Miss Clara Russell, 903 Paradrome street,
Cincinnati.
=Indiana= Amos W. Butler, State House, Indianapolis.
=Illinois= Miss Mary Drummond, Wheaton.
=Iowa= Miss Nellie S. Board, Keokuk.
=Wisconsin= Mrs. George W. Peckham, 646 Marshall street,
Milwaukee.
=Minnesota= Mrs. J. P. Elmer, 314 West Third street,
St. Paul.
=Texas= Miss Cecile Seixas, 2008 Thirty-ninth
street, Galveston.
=California= Mrs. George S. Gay, Redlands.

A Bird Class for Children

One of the most frequent questions asked by those seeking to win children to an appreciation of birds is, "How, when we have awakened the interest, can we keep it alive?"

The only way to accomplish this, to my thinking, is to take the children out-of-doors and introduce them to the 'bird in the bush,' to the bird as a citizen of a social world as real in all its duties and requirements as our own.

There is a group of people with ultra-theoretical tendencies, who insist upon considering the bird merely as a feathered vertebrate that must not be in any way humanized, or taken from its perch in the evolutionary scheme, to be brought to the plane of our daily lives. In teaching children, I believe in striving to humanize the bird as far as is consistent with absolute truth, that the child may, through its own love of home, parents, and its various desires, be able to appreciate the corresponding traits in the bird. How can this best be done? By reading to children? That is one way; and good, accurate, and interesting bird books are happily plentiful. But when the out-door season comes, little heads grow tired of books, and anything that seems like a lesson is repugnant.

Then comes the chance to form a bird class, or a bird party, if the word class seems too formidable. A dozen children are quite enough to be easily handled. The ages may range from six to twelve. Arrange to have them meet outdoors once a week, in the morning, during June and July. A pleasant garden or a vineclad piazza will do for a beginning; it is inadvisable to tire children by taking them far afield until they have learned to identify a few very common birds in their natural surroundings.

Children who are familiar with even the very best pictures of birds must at first be puzzled by seeing the real bird at a distance, and perhaps partly screened by foliage. The value of the out-door bird class is, that to be successful it must teach rapid and accurate personal observation.

"Very true," you say, "but the birds will not stay still while the children are learning to observe." Yes; yet this difficulty may be met in two ways. If you are so situated that you can borrow say twenty-five mounted birds from a museum or the collection of a friend, you will have a very practical outfit.

Choose four or five birds, not more for one day, take them outdoors, and place them in positions that shall resemble their natural haunts as much as possible. For example, place the Song Sparrow in a little bush, the Bluebird on a post, and the Chippy on a path. Let the children look at them near by and then at a distance, so that a sense of proportion and color value will be developed unconsciously.

After this, the written description of the habits of the birds, which you must read or tell the children, will have a different meaning. This method may be varied by looking up live specimens of the birds thus closely observed.

"True," you say again, "but I cannot beg or borrow any mounted birds."

Then take the alternative. Buy from the Massachusetts Audubon Society, 234 Berkeley St., Boston, for a dollar, one of its Audubon Bird Charts. This chart is printed in bright colors and is accompanied by a little pamphlet describing the twenty-six common birds that are figured. These are the (1) Downy Woodpecker, (2) Flicker, (3) Chimney Swift, (4) Ruby-throated Hummingbird, (5) Kingbird, (6) Bluejay, (7) Bobolink, (8) Red-winged Blackbird, (9) Baltimore Oriole, (10) Purple Finch, (11) American Goldfinch, (12) Chipping Sparrow, (13) Song Sparrow, (14) Scarlet Tanager, (15) Barn Swallow, (16) Cedar Bird, (17) Red-eyed Vireo, (18) Black and White Warbler, (19) Yellow Warbler, (20) Catbird, (21) House Wren, (22) Chickadee, (23) Golden-crowned Kinglet, (24) Wood Thrush, (25) American Robin, (26) Bluebird. Cut the birds carefully from the chart, back them with cardboard, and either mount them on little wooden blocks, like paper dolls, or arrange them with wires, so that they can be fastened to twigs or bushes.

You will be surprised to find how this scheme will interest the children, who may be allowed sometimes to place the birds themselves.

For those too old for the cut-out pictures, the teachers' edition of 'Bird-Life', with the colored plates in portfolios, will be found invaluable. The separate pictures may be taken outdoors and placed in turn on an easel behind a leaf-covered frame, with excellent effects--a few natural touches and the transition from indoors out often changing one's entire point of view.

One thing bearing on the question of bird study. If children ask you questions that you cannot answer as they surely will, do not hesitate to say "I don't know." Never fill their minds with fables guised as science, that they must unlearn.

Now a material point. When you have entertained your class for an hour, never more, lend the affair a picnic ending and give them a trifling lunch before they go; something very simple will do--cookies and milk, or even animal crackers!

The young animal of the human species, as well as many others, is a complexity of stomach and brain, and it is well to administer food to each in just proportion.