Editorials i6i A Bi-monthly Magazine Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AI'DUBON SOCIETIES Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Vol. II OCTOBER, 1900 No. 5 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 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, 1900, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. Bird-Lore's Motto: A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand. The A. O. U. and the Audubon Societies The proposal to hold a conference of representatives of the Audubon societies in Cambridge during the Seventeenth An- nual Congress of the American Ornitholo- gists' Union, which convenes in that city on November 12, 1900, is admirable, not alone through its promise of the accom- plishment of practical and desirable re- sults in matters concerning the work of the Audubon societies, but also because it will emphasize the close relation which exists between the societies and the Union. With the more isolated members of both organizations it is evident that this affilia- tion is not suspected ; indeed, the Audu- bonist whose aims are limited to regulat- ing the millinery of her neighbor finds, to put it mildly, nothing to commend in the most legitimate efforts of the ornithologist who, with equally narrow vision, is ofttimes led to make his critic stand as a type for the societies she so misrepresents. An associate member of the Union, liv- ing in California, voices this prejudice in a recent number of 'The Condor,' wherein he " registers a kick against being placed in the same class [of A. O. U. membership] with Audubonists and fad protectionists." His definition of the objectionable Audu- bonist as a woman who "declines to wear mangled bird-remains on her hat or as trimming for her clothing," very clearly exposes his ignorance of the scope of the work of the Audubon societies, an ignor- ance which we have found to prevail most widely in regions where the Audubon societies are least active. Doubtless there are " fad protectionists " in the ranks of the Audubon societies, just as there are fad collectors of birds' skins and eggs among the members of the Union; but fortunately both are of too little importance to aftect the harmony born of common interests which does exist between the Audubon societies and the A. O. U. The original Audubon society was organ- ized by the Union, and at the present time the presidents of three of the leading societies are prominent members of the A. O. U., while but few of the larger societies are without representatives of the Union on their executive boards who, be it added, are not mere figure-heads, but active workers. As further evidence of the community of interests of the two organizations, it may be said that the Union's Committee on the Protection of North American Birds is, in effect, an Audubon Society. It is not alone the necessity for bird-pro- tection which prompts these members of the A. O. U. to join forces with the Audu- bon societies, but because they recognize the enormous influence which these so- cieties can and do exert on the advance of ornithological interests in this country. Indeed, we assert without hesitation that the Audubon societies, with their 40,000 or more members, popular lecture courses, circulating libraries, school bird-charts, and many educational schemes, are a more potent force in shaping the future of American ornithology than the American Ornithologists' Union itself; and this not because their members decline "to wear mangled bird-remains," but because they
