Editorials 145 A Bi-monthly Magazine Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds OFFICIAL UKGAN <jF THE AUDUBON bUCIETIES Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Vol. Ill Published August 1. 1901 No. 4 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Price in tlie 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 Companv. Ltd., London. COPYRIGHTED, 1901, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. Bird-Lore's Motto: A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand. We had in mind an editorial on the tenth Supplement to the American Ornitholo- gists' Union's 'Check-List,' which presents the results of the deliberations of the Union's Committee on Classification and Nomenclature, at its session held in Wash- itifiton, in April last ('The Auk,' July, 1901, pp. 295-320), but our surroundings are so little in harmony with the technicali- ties of ornithology that we may well leave our proposed remarks until it is our misfor- tune to return to the editorial desk and in the meantime hope that all Bird-Lore's readers are as near the heart of the bird world as this 3d of July finds us. I'lie days are long in this latitude. For birds they begin at half after three in the morning and eighteen hours have passed be- fore the last bird's voice is hushed. One wonders whether the greater amount of food received per day does not here increase the rapidity of nestlings' growth and shorten their time in the fH>t. There is no marked sultr nooiidiu peri(jd, but from morning imtil night bir(i> ran be seen and heard in numbers. lit the ea>tcrn i)ird sludcni doubtks> one of the most striking sigiits in the binl- life of this region is furnished by the l^rairic (julN and Terns. Experience has so taught us to associate these birds with bays and sandy beaches, where alone their food is to be found, that it is not a little surprising to look from your tent door in the early morning and find the prairie round about dotted with Franklin's Gulls, looking more like chickens at first sight than members of the genus Larus. Nor does one soon tire of the novelty of seeing these same beautiful birds or active Black Terns hovering thick over the plough- man in eager quest of grubs in the length- ening furrow. These Terns resemble Swallows in habit as much as anything. They appear to feed exclusively on insects, and it is only when high winds set the prairie grasses rolling in long billows, over which they glide lightly, hovering here and there to pick an insect from a grassy crest, that one is reminded of their relationship. It was not, however, prairie birds that brought us to this region, but the feathered inhabitants of Shoal Lake itself with its often mile wide fringe of reeds and marshes. Here are to be found breeding. Grebes of at least three species — Western, Halboell's, and Pied-billed — White - winged Scoters, Mallards, Blue-winged Teal, Shoveller's, Scaups, and other Ducks; Sora, ^irginea, and probably the Yellow Rail; Coots, or Waterhens, as they are much better called, in great abundance, ^ ellow-headed Black- birds beyond calculation. Red -winged Blackbirds and Long-billed Marsh Wrens. In the immediately surroimding prairies are Wilson's Phalaropes and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Finches, and on little rocky islets, or reefs, as they are locally known. Common Terns, Herring CJulls, Double- crested Cormorants and White Pelicans find secure nesting places. But it is the life of the reeds which hoKIs the strongest interest for the bird student at Shoal Lake. In the endless reed forests anything is possible, and from them as I write (at 10 i*. M.) there issues a chorus of weird groans, whities and calls comparable to nothing known to man and which it re- i|uires little imagination to believe are ut- tered by creatures tliemselves unknown to man. Shoal lake. Manit'iha . Jul' 3, 1901.
