State Audubon Reports 301 



This leaflet emphasizes the fact that it is "illegal for any one to shoot 

 Robins or other non-game birds, even on his own premises,'' and that "all 

 non-game birds" (with a short list of exceptions) "may not be sold as mil- 

 linery, or for any other purpose." 



Perhaps it would not be out of i)lace in this report to give a short account 

 of the Spencer F. Baird Ornithological Club, started in Philadelphia some ten 

 years ago, and, by doing so, answer the question the Audubon Society is 

 constantly asked: "How can a bird club assist the Audubon Society, and at 

 the same time be an entirely independent organization?" This club was 

 started by the first Secretary of the Audubon Society, Mrs. Edward Robins, 

 as an entirely separate club, but the individual members later became Audu- 

 bon members also; it meets four times each year. 



The first meeting, which is held in November, is devoted chiefly to report- 

 ing summer observations. At the January meeting, the subject is always 

 some widely distributed bird or family of birds, each member being expected 

 to study up on the particular point allotted him. The March meeting is 

 usually an illustrated lecture, and is a joint gathering of the club and the 

 Audubon Society members. The last meeting in May is an outdoor one, 

 which the club aims to hold at the height of the migration season. This bird- 

 club programme is the result of a number of experiments, and it is hoped that, 

 in giving it in this report, it may be of use to other societies who are forming 

 clubs for bird study. — Elizabeth Wilson Fisher, Secretary. 



Rhode Island. — The work of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island, 

 this year, has been largely educational. A dozen demonstration bird-boxes 

 have been prepared by the Education Committee, after the method used by 

 museums, and circulated among the rural schools. Each box contains a group 

 of birds in characteristic position, also a life-history set of some injurious insect 

 destroyed by birds. These are much appreciated by the teachers in the Nature 

 Study exercises. 



The Education Committee has also arranged for illustrated bird lectures, 

 two of which have been given at Roger Williams Museum, and three at the 

 Providence PubHc Library; also, fifteen lectures have been given by direct- 

 ors of the Society in clubs and schools. 



Interest has been revived in the use of leaflets with colored bird plates 

 and a thousand have been distributed to the grammar schools of Providence. 

 Through the interest of the teachers, the supervisor of drawing, Mr. Randall, 

 was led to introduce bird-work into the drawing lessons of the sixth and se\enth 

 grades. Colored wall-charts have been given to those schools securing twenty- 

 five new junior members. 



The traveling libraries have aided in our educational work. Ten cases 

 of books have been in constant use, two of which were reserved for city schools. 

 A system of registration of the circulation of the books has been used, showing 



