Probably one of the first things that attracted your attention in connection with this first issue of the Nebraska Bird Review was the figure of the Western Burrowing Owl on the front cover page, in its characteristic prairie dog town habitat. The figure used is one that was drawn nearly forty years ago by J.L. Ridgway for Dr. A.K. Fisher's paper on the "Hawks and Owls as Related to the Farmer", published in the Yearbook for 1894 (p. 226) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The general appropriateness of using an illustration of this common and typical bird of the western plains on the cover of a publication devoted to Nebraska ornithology is obvious. In fact, just a few years back the Western Burrowing Owl was suggested, and with good reasons, as a proper candidate for selection as the state bird of Nebraska. But there is an additional propriety, not so well known, in our selection of this species for our cover illustration in that it was first made known to science in 1825 from specimens taken by the Major Long Expedition in June, 1820, along the Platte River in central Nebraska. (Editor in 1933: Myron H. Swenk)

With the present issue of the Nebraska Bird Review, now established on a semi-annual basis, you will note several changes. Conspicuous among these is the stiff-papered sepia cover to our magazine, and outstanding on the front cover page is a new illustration of the Western Burrowing Owl, the N.O.U. "mascot bird", in characteristic pose. The pen and ink drawing for this splendid illustration was most generously donated to us by Dr.George Miksch Sutton, the well known ornithologist and distinguished author, who is equally well known as a painter of birds and probably has no living superior in that art. As Dr. Sutton has at different times expressed to your Editor, he retains a warm regard for Nebraska, having lived in the state and studied its birds during the early part of his ornithological career, and his providing us with a suitable new illustration for our cover is his concrete demonstration of that regard, which certainly is reciprocated by all of us. Thank you very much, Dr. Sutton. (Editor in 1938: Myron H. Swenk)