Evening star., 1917-03-04
BY JAMES B. MORROW.

ENiHE question was as gravely met
ana answered as it was soberly
conceived and asked.
During the many years OF
your Intimate association with birds,
the interviewer inquired. have you OBJ
served any brilliant individuals among
them who outshone their species as
human beings excel among other human
beings of their own particular genera
tions-
My relations with BIRDS DR.. Albert
Kenrick Fisher replied. have been So
eial rather than martial. prosaical or
political. They have looked upon me
as friend. 1. in turn. have regarded
them as comrades. Friends and COM
rades don't show off to one another.
have known a chickadee that would
sit on the end of my nose and eat beef
suet that 1 held between my lips. But
was that a sign OF mental pre-eminence?
"A Dng-eared owl was reared in my
household. The children would put a
sun-bonnet on his head and little
shawl around his shoulders. and he
would look pleased and important when
] came home and found him dressed
up. He played on the floor with the
children. When the play became too
rough for his comfort he would fly to
the top of door.
wild geese. have stood about me like
chickens while l fed them bread from a
loaf One Of them. in California, walked
over my feet, eagerly swapping up the
crumbs that dropped from my hand.
Birds are sociable. Treat them kindly
and gently and they will reciprocate by
giving you their confidence. Some of
them are smarter than others. All Of
them are efficient. My judgments as to
birds are collective. / would hesitate be-
fore l tried to introduce an aristocracy
among thern~hy singing out those to be
placed in what might be called a beaked
and feathered hall of fame
More than fifty years ago. in the fields
and forests adjacent to the village of
Sing Sing, now known as Ossining, a
small boy in kits followed hunters and
dogs in their quest of robins. fiickers and
meadow larks- Occasionally fallen bird
would be overlooked The boy, finding It,
and study ituntil his mother set an hour
for its obsequies. The burial took place
under beech tree in the garden. al
bert X. Fisher's Bird Cemetery" read a
card written by sister of the proprie-
tor. tacked-against the bark.
BY and by Albert Fisher went to school
One mofnfng he found pine grosbeak
that had fallen and died after the man
with gun had passed The boy took the
strange bird 70 his teacher. an authority
whom he liked and honored. That"
said the teacher instantly and preten-
tiously, lis English martin"
'It was several years before ] learn
ed that my teacher was a braggart and
a buffer" DIR. Fisher remarked to the
interviewer. His pompous and extern
poraneous ignorance caused me some
confusion and embarrassment, but out
of IL came moral that have preached
and rolIoSed all my life. 4 don't
know. when one doesn't know, are the
noblest and bravest words that any
one can speak.
In 1879. at the age of twenty-three
Albert K. Fisher was graduated at the
College of Physicians and Surgeons in
New York. But birds. then and since.
were first. in his affections and
thoughts. He wrote articles about
them and corresponded with young
men whose enthusiasmS We're like his
own. More than thirty years ago he
brought the scientific students of birds
together and founded the american
OrnitholOgists' Union. the most infiuen-
tial organization of its kind in the
world,
The society has never had any other
president Moreover, since 1885 Dr.
Fisher has been carrying on bird in
vestigations for the government of the
United States. He is no stopped and
scholarly recluse. with physical sug-
gestions of feathers. talons and bill,
but a-wide-awake man of the world
who talks like human being. dresses
as monishly as merchant or manu-
faoturer, and shoots quail during the
season along the edges of the wheat
fields in Virginia and Maryland.
You ask me to name the most useful