The Warbler Book
By FRANK M. CHAPMAN
proposed book on the Warblers of North America. and requested
the aid of students of birds throughout the country in the preparation of this volume. Continued study of our birds emphasizes the absolute necessity for many observers if we are to have anything approaching adequate biographies of even a single species. Habits should be affirmed or denied only on the basis of abundant data: again. what proves true of a species in one part of its range may be incorrect in another; and we need. therefore. not only many observations from one place but from many places throughout a bird's range before we can write its life - history with an approach to thoroughness.
Cooperation. therefore, is the watchword of the bird-study of to-day. Instead of thinking that there is little left to learn. every bird student should feel that it is his special privilege to add to our knowledge of birds in nature. He may not make a novel or startling discovery. but he may confirm some observation which has already been made. and that. as a matter of fact. is second in value only to the original observation itself. An (It! may be attributed to a species on the basis of a single observation: but a habit. only after many observations.
The truth is. the best of our bird biographies tell the story of the individual rather than of the species. Life is too short for a single student to acquire a thorough knowledge of more than a few species of birds, and even then his experience is apt to be limited to a small part of their range. In the writer's opinion. the bird biographies in Bendire‘s ‘ Life History of North American Birds' are among the best if not the best of any which have been written. This is not solely because of Major Bendire's wide field experience and powers of observation. but also because he secured the cooperation of ornithologists throughout the country. It was not required that they should be skilled in painting pen pictures of bird»liie: facts. not rhetorical flights. were wanted. and the result is one of the most satisfactory books of reference of its kind.
There is an object~lesson for us here. In our enthusiastic appreciation of the bird as a creature of rare grace and beauty. the final touch giving life to woods and fields, let us not forget that as bird students we are here more intimately concerned with the birds’ habits than with the part they play as the 'jewels of creation,‘ when. with no loss of appreciation of the esthetic side of bird»life. we may make our bird biographies a storehouse of exact and detailed observations in regard to a bird's distribution. migra- tions. its manner of courting. singing. nesbbuilding. incubating. caring for its young. the relation between its structure and habit. etc,
(6:)
IN BIRD-LURE for December. 1903. the editor mentioned briefly a
