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Birti'Eore 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. Ill Published October 1, 1901 No. 5 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Price ill the United States, Canada, and Mexico twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, post- age paid. Subscriptions may be sent to the Publishers, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 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. COPYRIGHTED, igoi, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. Bird-Lore's Motto: A Bird in the Bush is JVorth Two in the Hand. The recent action of the Committee on Classification of the American Ornitholo- gists' Union in rejecting as imworth)' of recognition by name no less than twenty subspecies of North American birds, which have been described during the past two years, is a significant comment on the feather-splitting tendency of some present- day systematic ornithologists, and an elo- quent illustration of the Union's services to the science of ornithology. While the committee thus saves us from an additional burden of 'bridged difficulties,' it unfortunately cannot save systematic zoology from the stigma of this excessive and unwarranted describing of alleged "new" subspecies, and in his retiring ad- dress as vice-president of the Section of Zoology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, delivereil at Denver in August last, we find Prof. C. B. Davenport saying: "There is only one class of zoologists that I would wish to blot out, and that is the class whose reckless naming of new 'species' and ' arieties ' serves only to extend the work and the tables of the conscientious sjnonymv- hunterl " 10 the -A. (). V . we must also render thanks tor the continued admirable work of its Committee on the Protection of North American Birds, by whose labors in secur- ing the enactment of suitable bird protective laws and, what is of far more importance, seeing that they were enforced, the sea- birds of our Atlantic coast have enjoyed a peace during the past nesting season such as they have not known for many years. Indeed, the Union is deserving of far greater support from the public than it has thus far received, and now that the probable amendment of its constitution will open its ranks to bird-lovers of all classes, it is greatly to be hoped that its membership may be largely increased. The Eighteenth Congress of the Union soon to be held (Nov. 12-14) at the Ameri- can Museum of Natural History, New York cit}', will doubtless be no less interesting than its seventeen predecessors. A number of fully illustrated papers is assured, including the report of the Committee on the Protec- tion of North American Birds. Mr. Hoffmann's article on the Least Flycatcher, in this number of Bird-Lore, contains some interesting comments on the method of bird-study which advocates the removal of the branch with the nest and young to a convenient position near a tent, from the concealment of which the student may readily observe, and, if he be a pho- tographer, graphically record the life of the nest. To the bird-photographer who has con- scientiously photographed his nests in situ, often risking life and limb in his effort to picture the nest just where the bird placed it, this summary manner of settling the difficulties so frequently imposed by site are, at first thought, not a little shocking, while the possible dangers to the young which may follow deprivation, for a time, of food, and exposure to sim, storm and earthly enemies also suggest themselves. Under the direction of such a skilled, careful aiul humane student as Professor Herrick, the originator of this method, has pn)en himself to be, these dangers are minimized, but thi> fact should not leail us to overlook their importance.