Page:The Emu volume 1.djvu/7

 EDITORIAL NOTE.

completing with this issue the first volume of The Emu the editors most heartily congratulate members on the success which has been attained. Much was expected, much has been achieved. From the small gathering at which the Union was projected it has grown to proportions that will make its influence felt more and more, and numbers sufficient good workers in its ranks to render efficient service both to the science of ornithology and to the cause of bird protection. How much remains to be done in those directions every student and bird lover knows. Nearly 100 known species have their nests and eggs still undescribed, and of a large proportion of our birds some phases at least of their life-history are unknown.

To those members who have rendered aid by writing and forwarding papers the warmest of thanks are tendered, as also to those who have given advice. From both a continuance in the good work is solicited, as are contributions from other of our fellow-members. Every item chronicled in The Emu is helpful in the cause we all have at heart, and the larger the number of observers who prove that they are at work by recording what they see, and publishing their notes, the more efficient will the official journal of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union be. Up to the present the task of the editors has been a pleasurable one; it remains with members to make it continue so.