412 Bird -Lore 



of the Bob-white, due to the intense cold and lack of food. Letters were sent 

 to representative men and women in all parts of the state, requesting their 

 aid in seeing that these birds had food and shelter provided. We feel that much 

 useful work was done through the active cooperation of some of these men and 

 women in pubhshing articles in the press, in securing the help of the rural 

 mail-carriers, and in braving the snow and storms themselves to provide 

 shelter and food. The state Game- Warden, Mr. William B. Gates, aided in 

 every way possible in this matter, as well as in protecting the wild Ducks, 

 :Mergansers, Grebe and other water-birds that had been driven from the Great 

 Lakes into the towns, owing to the freezing over of Lakes Superior, Huron 

 and Michigan. 



Information came that many hundreds of water-birds appeared along shore, 

 searching for food, and were slaughtered at the springs and air-holes. The 

 game-warden got some convictions in those cases. I sent notices out to the 

 town authorities requesting that the inhabitants be instructed to feed any 

 of these birds that would eat grain. This was done in many instances, and 

 I was informed that the American Golden-eye, Canvas-back, Mallard and 

 Black Duck ate the food, but that the Old Squaw and the Mergansers, as well 

 as the arrivals from the far north, which the inhabitants were not famiHar 

 with, refused grain, but ate fish caught for them through the air-holes. Numbers 

 perished at some points, especially at places where no attention was given. 

 Special credit is due to Mrs. A. S. Putnam, of Manistique, for calling attention 

 to the situation in the North. She has been a supporter of the Audubon work 

 for a number of years. 



The thanks of the Society are due Mr. J. C. Richardson, Postmaster of 

 Jackson, who instructed the eight rural mail-carriers of his district to carry 

 food and place it in convenient places for the Bob-white, Robins and other 

 land-birds. One carrier reported twenty-four Robins on his route. The grain 

 was supplied by a merchant of Jackson. Mr. Norman A. Wood, of the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan Museum, reported that a thousand Robins were wintering 

 in a swamp near Ypsilanti. I had an investigation made during February and 

 found these birds were well supplied with wild fruit and weathering the winter 

 cheerfully with the thermometer going as low as sixteen below zero. A larger 

 number of wild birds than usual were reported last winter, due, no doubt, to 

 the fact that the autumn was mild and that there was a greater abundance 

 of wild fruit than usual. 



As spring-shooting prevails in this state, the usual gunning before and 

 after the opening of the season was experienced during the past year. However 

 we had watchers covering Grosse Pointe, one of the most bothersome places 

 in the past, with good results and a lessening of destruction. 



Co-ntests for prizes were carried on vigorously during the late winter and 

 spring. Books costing sixty dollars were distributed, and twelve bird nesting- 

 boxes were given for merit. Through the efforts of Mrs. Anna Walter, Sec- 



