l82 



Bird- Lore 



From Stamford we hear that many birds 

 have lieen kept around all winter bv teach- 

 Ing tlie children and others to feed the 

 birds, placing pieces of suet and seed boxes 

 on the trees. 



In Hartford our local secretary has, by 

 her bird talks in the public schools, fasci- 

 nated the chiklren and gained us 395 new 

 junior members. On Bird Day she spoke 

 in seven schools. 



In Westport the local secretary held bird 

 talks around the cages of the village store, 

 where a Barrel Owl, two Screech Owls and a 

 Chicken Hawk, a Coon and two flying squir- 

 rels were on exhibition and well cared for. 

 The Bird Day program which the Ex- 

 ecutive Committee arranged this year was 

 printed and sent out by the Board of Edu- 

 cation. The Society has sent ^20 to the 

 Thayer fund for the keeping of wardens on 

 the shore to protect our Gulls and Terns, a 

 much -needed work. 



We feel sure that the Audubon Societies, 

 having made themselves a power, are now 

 accomplishing the desired results. But our 

 work is not done, only begun. It must be 

 continued, or our past work will be lost in 

 a few years. We must keep our sentinels 

 on the watch, or the milliners will think we 

 are sleeping and plumage come into vogue 

 again. 



This year we ask for an increased interest 

 among the school children. Quoting from 

 another one of our workers: "The good 

 resulting from the work of the Society 

 among children will not end merely in the 

 protection of our feathered friends, nor in 

 the pleasure their presence gives to admirers 

 of fleeting grace and beauty and to lovers of 

 bird song, nor even with the practical side, 

 the benefit to the farmer in saving his crops 

 from the devastation of insects. The effect 

 upon the children themselves will be salu- 

 tary. Who will question the trutii of the 

 statement that the perceptions will be quick- 

 ened by studying and enjoying this form of 

 outdoor life ? The rousing of the finer 

 sensibilities of the children by teaching 

 them to guard the welfare of those inno- 

 cent, and, in a way, defenseless creatures, 

 formed by the same wisdom and love that 



endowed us, His highest creation, with life, 

 can but have a refining tendency upon the 

 characters of those we are striving to train 

 to noble manhood and womanhood." 



Helen W. Glover, Secretary. 



Library Report. — A special feature of 

 the Connecticut Audubon Society during 

 this last year, and one to which we attach 

 much importance, has been the distribution 

 of its libraries through the Connecticut 

 Public Library Committee. 



Beginning this work a little more than a 

 year ago, with about one hundred books as 

 a nucleus, their constant circulation, and 

 the appreciation with which they have been 

 received, are evidences of their popularity. 



When it is known that the libraries are 

 sent out to schools where the children and 

 often the teachers have no other opportunity 

 of obtaining books, it will be readily under- 

 stood how gladly they are welcomed. 



The children not only acquire a love for 

 reading but they learn the names of the 

 ■'green and growing" things in their woods 

 and gardens, to know the interesting habits 

 of animals, and to care for and protect our 

 birds. 



One teacher writes of going to the woods 

 with the children and sends a list of uncom- 

 mon wild flowers they have found with the 

 aid of Mrs. Dana's "How to Know the 

 Wild Flowers." Another tells of the inter- 

 est with which her scholars have listened to 

 Seton-Thompson's "Wild Animals I Have 

 Known," and to Mrs. Wright's "Four- 

 footed Americans," as she has read and re- 

 read them to her classes. One writes of 

 Library No. 7, The Olive Thorne Miller 

 Library : 



"After reading these books I noticed that 

 the children grew very fond of watching the 

 birds and their nests. Every noon they 

 would take their dinners and go off into the 

 woods near bj' to see the birds. When they 

 returned they were eager to tell the many 

 interesting things they had noticed. They 

 found a number of new nests and visited 

 them every day, watching anxiously for the 

 time when the young birds should be 

 hatched." 



