Page:Bird-lore Vol 05.djvu/138

 for Weathero arm btuhents

System in Field Records

BY EUGENE MURRAYiAARON

HE plea for the ever-ready note-book and praise of the diary-keeper,

so excellently set forth by Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton in BIRD~

LORE for December. [902. deserves careful reading and more—fob

lowing the advice—on the part of many who to-day are letting the hints

and whispers of Dame Nature pass by unnoted and, in many cases, not to be repeated.

But, few of us are so endowed that we can make the immediate and charming use of such notes as can Thompson Seton. Or. being entomolo- gists or botanists, we may yet observe many a fact worthy of recording cute side our ﬁelds, among the mammals, birds, or reptiles. It is the recording and keeping of such notes as these that is most likely to be overlooked by the ﬁeld student: for he does not feel competent to Weigh and use them himself, nor does he think it at all likely that they will be dug out of his journals by students in other branches Therefore, he early forms the habit of forgetting those observations not of special bearing on his own chosen department. It must be that in this way many unique happenings are lost to science; or. at least‘ their recording is postponed to the time of some later observer,

The solution of this problem of the permanency and useahility of such records is a most obvious one: yet, I find few who seem to have arrived at it. It is to be found in that greatest literary invention of the last century— the card catalogue.

Let the field worker see to it that he never goes afield without an atn~ ple supply of cards, Let these be the standard (3x5 inch) size. so that they will fit into any public or private card catalogue: for, if they are smaller than the cards with which they are to be incorporated they can be pasted on the larger cards, while. if larger and filled with notes to their mar- gins their incorporation is impossible. The writer finds it convenient to have these cards mounted in tablets of 100 each, gummed at the lower edges so that the particles of adherent gum on a removed card will not be on the top or sides to interfere with the ease of handling them in the catalogue drawer.

Two dissimilar or unrelated observations should never be put on one card Let each card be the bearer of its own story and no more: the wis- dom thereof will be amply apparent to the student when their classification and filing time arrives.

All cards should be dated: the ordinary rotary rubberrdating stamp is

r125)