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 30 Bird - Lore idirti'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. II February, 1900 No. 1 SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Price in 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 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. COPYRIGHTED, 1900, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. Bird-Lore's Motto: A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand. Bird-Lore begins its second year under circumstances which encourage the be- lief that already it is in a fair way to accomplish the purposes for which it was established. These, it may be re- membered, were stated in our first issue to be a desire to aid students of birds in nature and to promote the cause of the Audubon Societies. As far as our relations with bird-stu- dents are concerned, we desire here to express our appreciation of the large number of letters we have received from subscribers who have been kind enough to say that Bird-Lore has been of as- sistance to them. Their warmly spoken thanks are very grateful to us, and one letter, like the following, goes far toward recompensing us for any labor expended in their behalf. The writer says : " I wish to take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation of Bird-Lore and of saying that it has with me accomplished the purpose for which you say it is pub- lished — namely, the development of an active interest in birds. I am a novice in ornithology, but Bird-Lore has helped to make the woods and fields mean far more to me than they ever did before, by disclosing a side of nature to which I now see I was, until recently, practically blind ; and I think that my experiences must be but an example of the experience of many of your other readers, who, like myself, are business men, and so have comparatively little time to study nature." From the Audubon Societies we have received very welcome assurances that Bird-Lore is filling a ' long felt want, ' and, in this connection, we may be per- mitted to quote from the report for iSgg of Mr. Witmer Stone, chairman of the American Ornithologists' Union Commit- tee on Bird-Protection. In his report for 1898, Mr. Stone had remarked upon the necessity of an official organ for the Audubon Societies ; he now says that the idea of such a magazine has been realized by the appearance of 'Bird-Lore,' " which has fully justified the highest expectations of its advocates. The Audubon Society department, under the direction of Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, serves to unite these organizations and forms, as it were, a central bureau of information upon this line of work." — Auk, Jan. igoo, p. 52. The press throughout the country, has greeted ' Bird-Lore ' most cordially, and from numerous notices we select the follow- ing from the Philadelphia ' North Ameri- can:' "Bird-Lore completes its first year with the current December number, in many ways the best so far issued, which is saying a good deal. The editor and publishers of this more than attractive, beautifully illustrated magazine deserve the utmost encouragement, for not only is it full of interest for bird-lovers and students of field ornithology, but it is active in a work — that of protecting our birds — which is far more important, economically as well as aesthetically, than most can imagine. Por these reasons, we heartily commend Bird-Lore as the best popular magazine on birds." This reception of Bird-Lore is far more gratifying than mere pecuniary success could be and is a potent spur to our desire to make each issue better than the last. In the earlier numbers of the present volume, which appear at a time of the year when bird-studies form a part of