Bird-Lore Part 7

Complaint having been made that Cormorants were damaging the salmon fisheries of the Gaspe coast, the Geological Survey of Canada despatched Mr. Taverner with two a.s.sistants to study the food-habits of the Cormorant in the region where the charges against it originated.

It is not without significance that the Cormorant was accused, not by those who are dependent on fis.h.i.+ng for a living, but by anglers who having rented certain salmon streams apparently feel that they have also acquired the power to inflict the death penalty on any form of life which they believe to interfere with their own interests.

Mr. Taverner was in the field from June 21 to August 23, and during this time he not only secured data which indicated that the charges against the Cormorant are unfounded but made an interesting contribution to our knowledge of the life-history of that bird.

There is more in Mr. Taverner's thoughtful, well-written paper than is indicated by its t.i.tle. We trust that it will be read by each of the complaining anglers!--F. M. C.

The Ornithological Magazines

THE CONDOR.--The opening number of Volume XVIII of 'The Condor,' for January, 1916, is an unusually interesting one. Under the t.i.tle 'Philadelphia to the Coast in Early Days,' Dr. Witmer Stone, in a paper read at the meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union in San Francisco, last May, outlines the development of western ornithology prior to 1850. Anyone interested in the history of early work in the West will find here a clear, compact, and convenient resume of the contributors to ornithology made by the voyages and expeditions of Captain Cook, La Perouse, Vancouver, Lewis and Clarke, Major Long, Captain Wyeth and Captain Beechey, and special reference to the birds collected by Peale, Say, Townsend, Nuttall, Bell and Heermann.

Mrs. Bailey continues her description of 'The Characteristic Birds of the Dakota Prairies' with a charming account of the water-birds found along the sloughs and marshes.

Jewett contributes a brief paper on 'New and Interesting Bird Records,'

concerning thirteen species found in eastern Oregon during the spring and summer of 1915.

One of the first fruits of the recent publication of Grinnell's 'Distributional List of the Birds of California,' appears in Dawson's seven-page 'Personal Supplement,' which contains notes and critical comments on sixty-three species. If other observers would publish such notes as they have with equal detail, it would no doubt result in a considerable addition to the wealth of information on the distribution of California birds which Dr. Grinnell has already so successfully brought together.

The common names applied to several birds come in for criticism in Notes from Field and Study. Henderson defends the term 'House Finch,' and condemns the two synonyms by which the bird is often known. The term 'Linnet' he considers not distinctive and 'California Linnet' as indefensible. Dawson proposes Auburn Canyon Wren as a preferable name for the Dotted Canyon Wren and Coues' Petrel instead of Ashy Petrel for the bird which 'simply isn't ashy.'--T. S. P.

THE AUK.--Readers of the January issue will find therein a good deal about bird song as it is viewed from different angles by several contributors. Mr. H. Oldys discusses the 'Rhythmical Singing of Veeries'

from a musician's standpoint, and Mr. A. A. Saunders, in a letter at page 103, upholds the scientist's belief in the use of a graphic method while, casually, in no less than three other articles, the writers make use of conventional human syllables in an effort to express bird-notes.

After all, a person must hear a bird-song to know anything about it, and the crudest symbols, musical notes or words that he may employ to awaken his memory of the song mean more to him than any system that has yet been invented. It is his notation alone that will arouse his memory, for the science of musical sounds cannot go far in explaining what his ear has never heard. Mr. H. J. Fry offers 'A Study of the Seasonal Decline of Bird Song,' painstaking so far as it goes, but limited to a single season.

Mr. F. C. Lincoln records 'The Discovery of the Nest and Eggs of _Leucosticte australis_,' the Brown-capped Rosy Finch, in the Colorado mountains and shows us a half-tone of the site and one of the nest and eggs, the latter pure white. Messrs. B. S. Bowdish and P. B. Philipp record the finding of several nests of 'The Tennessee Warbler in New Brunswick,' and also show us half-tones of the rare nest and eggs.

A pleasing study of the courts.h.i.+p of several species of ducks is presented by Dr. C. W. Townsend, who uses binoculars to good advantage, and Mr. J. C. Phillips raises 'Two Problems in the Migration of Water Fowl,' one, regarding the occurrence of certain North American Ducks in the Marshall Islands, the other dealing with the behavior of Canada Geese when migrating.

Mr. W. A. Bryan declares that there is 'An Undescribed Species of _Drepanididae_ on Nihoa, Hawaiian Group,' but wisely refrains from preliminarily tagging it with a name (as has sometimes been done in similar cases) because no specimens have been obtained. Messrs. J. E.

Thayer and O. Bangs list 'A Collection of Birds from Saghalin Island,'

Mr. F. H. Allen describes 'A Nesting of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak,' and Mr. H. Mousley contributes the first part of 'Five Years' Personal Notes and Observations on the Birds of Hatley, Stanstead Co., Quebec, 1911-1915.' There is much of interest in Mr. Mousley's well annotated list which is to be continued.--J. D.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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

Contributing Editor, MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT

Published by D. APPLETON & CO.

Vol. XVIII Published April 1, 1916 No. 2

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

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

COPYRIGHTED, 1916, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN

Bird-Lore's Motto:

_A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Hand_

It is a long time since BIRD-LORE has published a more valuable and significant article than the one contributed by Mr. Gilbert H. Grosvenor to this issue. Its chief value does not lie in its important bearing on what may be termed avian sociology or on its surprising demonstration of the close connection existing between available nesting-sites and bird-population. Rather is it to be found in the relations which it reveals between human-life and bird-life as the result of the best type of what we have before called 'bird gardening.'

The birds which Mr. Grosvenor has brought about him are unquestionably more his birds than if he had shot them and placed their skins in a cabinet. With their death his responsibility for their welfare would cease. But a living bird, to which we feel we owe protection, is exposed to so many dangers that our fears for its safety are correspondingly aroused. These birds of our garden are our guests. Through the erection of bird-houses and by other means we have invited them to live with us and when they accept as readily as they have with Mr. Grosvenor, they make us realize not only our responsibility but they awaken the strongest sense of hospitality.

In a former number of BIRD-LORE we had something to say about what we believe to be the difference between ornithologists and bird-lovers.

That is, between the bird student eager to devote his life to research work some of which may be so dry and technical that it would repel anyone but a born enthusiast; and the person whose interest in birds, while keen and genuine, does not beget that hunger for knowledge concerning them which is the birthright of the true naturalist.

The first type of interest we feel distinguishes the born ornithologists, the second is an almost universal heritage of mankind.

Usually, however, it is dormant. We may be in possession of this priceless gift and still be unaware of its existence. Herein lies the value of nature-study, and particularly of the kind of educational work the National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies accomplishes through its Junior Cla.s.ses. It is _not_ to be expected that the one hundred and fifty odd thousand children included in these cla.s.ses during the past year will become ornithologists. But if their inherent love of birds is quickened and they become acquainted with the more common species and are taught to realize the beauty and value of bird-life we shall have added immeasurably to their resources.

Mr. Grosvenor tells us that in April, 1913, when he moved to his country home near Was.h.i.+ngton, neither he nor any member of his family could name more than three species of birds. Opportunity so quickly added to this number that within two years, as his statistics show, he had succeeded in inducing to nest on his home acre more than twice as many birds as had been before reported from the same area and under similar conditions.

So much we learn from the figures given. But no figures can express the pleasure derived from the friends.h.i.+ps which have been established between landlord and tenant, and between landlord's family and tenants'

families. Mr. Grosvenor may regret that his own childhood lacked that a.s.sociation with the commoner birds which gives them an enduring place in our affection. But his pictures show that he does not propose to have his children denied this privilege.

=The Audubon Societies=

=SCHOOL DEPARTMENT=