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l62 Bird -Lore realize the incalculable importance of edu- cation, and are making every effort to secure for the youth of this country op- portunities to learn something of the beauty and value of bird-life which the previous generation lacked. We would make no comparison be- tween the Audubon Societies and the Union which would in any way reflect on the work of either. Both have their place, and when their relations are properly understood it will be seen that they stand to each other as preparatory school to college. It is the province of the Audubon societies to arouse interest in the study of birds, in short, to make ornithologists; it is the province of the A. O. U. to enroll them in its member- ship after the school-day period has passed, and sustain their interest through the stimulation which comes from associ- ation with others having kindred tastes. The ornithologist who counts success through the number of his 'takes' and 'finds' should understand that we are reaching a stage in the study of North American birds where the field-glass is of more importance than the gun, where observations are more needed than col- lections. It is this doctrine which mem- bers of the A. O. U. themselves are try- ing to inculcate in the minds of budding ornithologists (witness their circular issued by the Pennsylvania Audubon Society and published in Bird-Lore for August, iSgg), and to close the ranks of the Union to what, in effect, are their own pupils, would be obviously too inconsistent to be worthy of a moment's consideration. Robbed of its misconception of the aims of the Audubonists, and we confess to a certain sympathy with the plea of the writer of the letter we have quoted from for an additional class of members in the A. O. U. The suggestion to in- crease the limit of active membership from fifty to sixty or seventy-five, put forth by another correspondent of ' The Condor' seems to us to be unwarranted by e.xisting conditions. The writer men- tioned thinks that California should be better represented on the active list, but we find that it already possesses four active members, or more than any other state except Massachusetts and New York and the District of Columbia. However, he admits that among the ninety mem- bers of the Cooper Ornithological Club of California there are only "two, pos- sibly three, who would fill the require- ments" demanded of candidates for active membership. To this number average current opinion would add probably four or five candidates from the East, making a total number of eight possible claim- ants for the four vacancies in the active list, certainly not a too severe competi- tion for " the highest honor to which any American Ornithologist, can aspire." The proposal to make two classes of associate members, on the contrary, has much in its favor. When the Union was organized there was far less interest in the study of birds than at present, and the list of associate members was largely composed of amateur ornitholo- gists, any one of whom might eventually become a candidate for active member- ship. But with the greatly increased popularity of ornithology there has arisen a class of students who, while they do not aspire to the rank of active member- ship, are still desirous of being connected with the Union, and between them and the associates, whose ambition it is to become active members, a distinction might, with perfect justice, be made by the creation of a class of senior associates limited to one hundred in number. But, in any event, let us regard with equal fairness the technical ornithologist absorbed in his minute study of speci- mens and his disentanglements of nom- enclatural snarls, and the ardent bird- protectionist who perhaps can not name a dozen birds correctly. Both are sin- cere, both are necessary, and a mutual understanding of each other's aims will, we are sure, lead to mutual respect.