ࡱ> 574q ^*bjbjt+t+ 6AA^&]22222 > 2VVVVVVVV$}q VVVVV~VVV~~~VVVV~~VJ ❨j22This article was published in 1953, as part of the nineteenth annual report of the BTO, which celebrated the trust's 21st birthday. This is a very slightly edited version, with references to other parts of that report removed for clarity. It was written by the late James Fisher, author of the famous Pelican book Watching Birds and later resident editor of the Collins New Naturalist books. Between 1940 and 1950, more than 600 new members joined the BTO as result of reading Watching Birds. Fishers article was written at an important turning point in the Trusts history, when the original objective of establishing an institute of ornithology at Oxford University had been achieved. The BTO was poised to spread its wings away from Oxford and able to re-focus all its energy on a programme of national volunteer surveys. As the BTO enters a new century with 11,500 members, 25,000 supporters and a staff of more than 80 at our purpose-built headquarters, we can reflect on the speed and energy with which our founders, members and volunteers have enabled us to achieve so much and on the great potential for the future. The Development of The British Trust for Ornithology (1953). As I write, we are in the 21st year of the Trusts existence, for while it did not become incorporated until 1939, its Provisional Council first met in the autumn of 1932. I became a member of the Trust in 1936, and an officer, of a sort, in 1937, so that I cannot say I had anything to do with its beginning. But I can well remember the atmosphere of those early years and a lot of the ideas and personalities ruling the Trust at that time. With our 2,000 members and our study organisations, we present a pretty solid picture nowadays; but in those early years all we had were ideas and enthusiasm. We had scarcely any money. In 1935, when we first published our membership, it was only 176, paying 10s. a head. In our 17th report, written shortly after the lamented death of B W Tucker, E M Nicholson gave a vivid picture of the early days of the Trust. He stressed, as well he might, the wonderful contribution that B W Tucker made. It is pretty certain that without Tucker, and I must also say, without E M Nicholson, the Trust would never have succeeded at all. It has never been possible to say exactly what the Trust grew out of. Some say that it sprang from the Oxford Ornithological Society, and E M Nicholson traces its decent from the Oxford Bird Census which started early in 1927. There was also the influence of the most remarkable of all ornithological journals, British Birds, the only completely successful ornithological monthly magazine in the world, and its proprietor and editor, the late Harry Witherby. In 1927 there had been a stimulating pamphlet from Hertford College, Oxford, which had set bird watchers all talking about census work and many questions of technique which they had hardly thought of before. It is difficult also to exaggerate the influence of those early books of E M Nicholson. How Birds Live (1927) was quickly followed by The Study of Birds (1929) and The Art of Bird Watching (1931). From 1937, when I first became an officer of the Trust as Assistance Treasurer, till 1944, when my term of office as Honorary Secretary came to an end, I had ample opportunity for discussing its aims and objects with those whose original conception it was. In those days I was particularly enthusiastic about the Trusts co-operative enquiries (I still am), and used often to discuss them with Bernard Tucker, who had himself organised so much co-operative work in heronry and rookery censuses in the late 1920s. Every now and then Tucker used to bring me down to earth. You must remember, he would say, that the Trust was really started to get money for the Oxford Institute. Of course he knew as well as anybody that the object of the Trust was to find out about birds by promoting and encouraging field enquiries. But this was his way of reminding me of the importance of finance. Ever since its inception, and in spite of some wonderful generosity which I shall return to presently, the Trust has been fighting a hard and long battle for funds. There was a time when the Council fondly thought that all the Trusts financial difficulties would be solved when its membership reached 1,000. The Provisional Council of the Trust in 1933 worked hard for subscriptions and promises of support; but I doubt whether it would have been possible for the Trust to start without the private generosity of Harry Witherby, one of our first Vice-Chairmen. In 1933 he sold his magnificent collection of palaearctic birds, which was then the largest in the country, to the British Museum of Natural History, for 1,500. 100 of this he spent on the development of a nature reserve round his Surrey home; the balance he gave to the Trust to form the nucleus of a permanent fund. This slenderness of funds distinguished the early years of Trust work. However, it embarked on an ambitious programme of field work when its permanent income was only about 150 a year. The Swallow investigation (organised by A W Boyd) was launched, a special investigation of the ecology and population of heathland birds (organised by David Lack), sampling for the annual Heron index, an investigation of Short-eared Owls by the late T Russell Goddard, linked with the vole work of the Bureau of Animal Population, the original Fulmar investigation (started by George Waterston) W B Alexanders survey of the woodcock in the British Isles, enquiries on bird flight, on the effect of drought on water birds, and of new reservoirs, of bud-eating, on tameness, and on the local status of various chosen birds. Early in 1936 the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Vice-Chairman of Oxford University and others, launched a Viscount Grey Memorial Appeal, the principal object of which was to develop, by endowment, the existing scheme of research maintained by the British Trust for Ornithology at Oxford, and to form a permanent institute of bird studies, to which Greys name was to be given. The Appeal eventually raised about 3,000, which was used to establish the Edward Grey Institute, and, when it was incorporated in 1939, the Trust became trustee of this fund. But the formal establishment of the Edward Grey Institute did not wait for that. It was established by Decree in Congregation of Oxford University on 19th June 1938, in rooms at 39 Museum Road, and W B Alexander became its first director. Naturally during the war the progress of the Trust and Institute took unexpected directions, but the really surprising thing was the continued rise in membership, and the eager way in which men and women in the Services kept up their subscriptions and even joined in some of the investigations. Indeed, the Trust ended the war with two and a half times as many members as when the war began. The main Trust researches during the war were in the economic sphere. Grants were received from the Agricultural Research Council to promote investigations at the Institute into the status and control of the Wood Pigeon, and into the population and feeding habits of the Rook. At one time as many as 19 people were engaged this work. But it became clear that when the Government no longer needed economic investigations, the Institute would never, on what the Trust could spare for it, be able to develop in the way that was intended. At the end of the war there was a re-organisation. Now it might be argued that once the Edward Grey Institute had become established, and once the chief financial responsibility for it had been taken over by the University, the object of the Trust was fulfilled and its reason for existence gone. In actual fact, the Trusts life had only just begun. It was founded, of course, as its Articles of Association clearly show, to find out about birds. The idea of the Edward Grey Institute was one possible means to an end. It is an end which has been so successfully attained that it is with a confident and experienced air that the Trust can look round for the next target. It has proved abundantly, I think, that the new idea of the late 1920s, the idea of co-operative enquiries, was a really good one, capable of producing great advances in our knowledge of birds. The Trust has now made a dozen or more co-operative enquiries, and has learned much from them. It has learnt how few limits there are to the possibilities of co-operative work, provided there are experts ready to assess the worth of some of the information sent in by contributors who may not be known to the organisers. But the history of such investigations as that on the Corncrake, or the Fulmar shows that intricate details can be collected from voluntary observers, for no other reward than a few petrol coupons and the fun of doing it. Of course the Trust organises and supports some individual investigations as well as the co-operative ones. But I should be sorry if the day should ever come when there were no more co-operative enquiries, for in this sphere it seems to me the Trust can play a most important role. Of course I dont believe there is the faintest possibility of such a thing happening. The main scope for individual research will always be under university departments and institutes like the Edward Grey. But theres no organisation in the world, so far as I know, which quite such wide experience in net-work research as the British Trust. Indeed I think the most important danger to the Trust might be a shortage of experienced organisers and scientists capable of analysing the data. But this is where our Scientific Advisory Committee, and close relations with the Edward Grey Institute, serve their purpose. James Fisher. wyjk '#;>@^*6H*5 56H*56kl DE9:ef m!n!&&O*P*^*$kl DE9:ef m!n!&&O*P*^*/ =!"#$% [$@$NormalmH 0@0 Heading 1$@&5<A@<Default Paragraph Font*B@* Body Text$^&6  :^&+^*^*^* &1oxNTv"&"/"5"`&qr}    IM ##%&%P&]&`&jackyUC:\TEMP\AutoRecovery save of The Development of The British Trust for Ornithology.asdjackyAD:\Carol\The Development of The British Trust for Ornithology.docjackyAD:\Carol\The Development of The British Trust for Ornithology.docjackyAD:\Carol\The Development of The British Trust for Ornithology.docjackyAD:\Carol\The Development of The British Trust for Ornithology.docjackyAD:\Carol\The Development of The British Trust for Ornithology.docjackyAD:\Carol\The Development of The British Trust for Ornithology.docandrewcD:\gbwweb\Fisher.docjeff,\\BNT1\JEFF\My Documents\WEB\Next\Fisher.docandrewc \\BNT1\website\btoweb\Fisher.doc@ _PID_GUIDAN{BBB3E657-460F-11D4-8179-00C04F43DEF0}  !"#%&'()*+-./01236Root Entry\BNT1\website FrЙ;j8``1TableWordDocument6SummaryInformation($DocumentSummaryInformation8,CompObjjObjectPoolЙ;jЙ;jq  FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q