The paper by Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller on '[The Ethics of Caging Birds],' published in the last number of Bird-Lore, has been both commended and condemned. Some correspondents have considered it a most rational and unprejudiced treatment of the subject, others have written that as its general tenor might encourage the caging of birds, it was not to be endorsed. Particularly do they deplore what Mrs. Miller feels to be "a work of charity,"—the rescuing of birds "from the discomforts of a bird-store" for, they say, that the dealer replaces the sold bird with another, and the final result is to encourage the trade in birds. Of this there can be no doubt, and the question, therefore, becomes one for debate, as to whether the pleasure to be derived from the companionship of a caged bird, the humanizing influence which may be exerted by association with a creature dependent on us, and the knowledge we may acquire of its habits, justify us in depriving it of its liberty—assuming, of course, that it receives proper care. We shall be glad to receive the opinions of our readers on this subject.
'The Century' for July has an illustrated article on Bird Rock, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, by the Editor of this journal, which, it should be said, would have appeared in Bird-Lore had it not been disposed of before this magazine was established. This statement will also apply to an article on Pelican Island, Florida, which will appear in 'St. Nicholas' for September.
Dr. Coues having retired from the Editorship of 'The Osprey,' Dr. Gill, who had withdrawn his name from recent numbers, assumes control.
"You cannot with a scalpel find the poet's soul,
Nor yet the wild bird's song."
Edited by Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright (President of the Audubon Society of the State of Connecticut), Fairfield, Conn., to whom all communications relating to the work of the Audubon and other Bird Protective Societies should be addressed.