■ i'ou cannot with a scalpel Jind 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. Reports, etc., designed for this depart- 

 ment should be sent at least one month prior to the date of publication. 



DIRECTORY OF STATE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



With names and addresses of their Secretaries. 



New Hampshire Mrs. F. W. Batchelder, Manchester. 



Massachusetts Miss HARKiEr E. Richards, care Boston Society of Natural History, Boston. 



Rhode Island Mrs. H. T. Grant, Jr., 1S7 Bowen street. Providence. 



Connecticut Mrs. William Brown Glover, Fairfield. 



New York Miss Emma H. Lockwood, 243 West Seventy-fifth street, New York City. 



New Jersey Miss Anna Haviland, 53 Sandford Ave., Plainfield, N.J. 



Pennsylvania Mrs. Edward Robins, 114 South Twenty-first street, Philadelphia. 



District of Columbia Mrs. John Dewhurst Patten, 3033 P street, Washington. 



Wheeling, W. Va. (branch of Pa. Society) Elizabeth I. Cummins, i3i4Chapline street. Wheeling. 



Ohio Miss Clara Russell, 903 Paradrome street, Cincinnati. 



Indiana Amos W. Butler, State House, Indianapolis. 



Illinois Miss Mary Drummond, Wheaton. 



Icwa Miss Nellie S. Board, Keokuk. 



Wisconsin Mrs. George W. Peckham, 646 Marshall street, Milwaukee. 



Minnesota Mrs. J. P. Elmer, 314 West Third street, St. Paul. 



Tennessee Mrs. C. C. Conner, Ripley. 



Texas Miss Cecils Sei.xas, 2008 Thirty-ninth street, Galveston. 



California Mrs. George S. Gav, Redlands. 



The Law and the Bird 



During the past ten months Bird-Lore 

 has printed interesting statistics concern- 

 ing the organization of the various State 

 Audubon Societies, as well as significant 

 reports of the progress of their work. 

 So far so good. There are, of course, 

 slight differences in the platforms of 

 these societies regarding by-laws, meth- 

 ods, fees versus no fees, etc. Upon one 

 point, however, they all agree — that 

 while they deplore the use of the feathers 

 of wild birds in millinery, the great 

 point is the education of children to have 

 the proper regard for bird life. 



It is, however, necessary to go a step 

 behind even this. A priori the bird 

 must be given a legal status before it 

 can be protected with any general suc- 

 cess, even by those most willing so to do. 

 In appealing to the average child of the 

 public school, it should be remembered 

 of how many races this average child is 

 compounded, — races with instincts con- 

 cerning what are called the lower ani- 

 mals, quite beyond the moral com- 



(203) 



prehension of the animal-loving Anglo- 

 Saxon. To make this average school 

 child respect the rights of the bird, the 

 bird must be given a legal status to com- 

 mand, and not to beg respect. This 

 child may be appealed to in other ways 

 and may readily assent to all that you say, 

 zvhile your personal influejice is zuith 

 him, but he goes away and forgets ; he 

 does not feel the weight of a merely 

 moral penalty. 



Game birds have this legal status, in a 

 greater or less degree, in all states, with 

 perhaps the single exception of Missis- 

 sippi, and sportsmen are always on the 

 alert for infringement of the game laws. 



It would seem to me wise for Audu- 

 bonites to turn more attention to the 

 legal status of the class of birds that 

 they specially seek to protect. 



Legislation in this respect is, of 

 course, difficult to obtain, because many 

 sportsmen are afraid of weakening the 

 game laws by stirring up discussion re- 

 garding song birds, etc.; but much more 

 can be made of the existing laws. That 



