Ctje Audubon ^ociette0 



" y'ou cannot with a scalpel find the poet' s soul, 

 I^or 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 department 

 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. 



Vermont Mrs. Fletcher K. Barrows, Brattleboro. 



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



Rhode Island Mrs. H. T. Grant, Jr., 187 Bowen street, Providence. 



Connecticut Mrs. William Brown Glover, Fairfield. 



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



New Jersey Miss Jilia Scribner, 510 E. Front street, Plainfield, N. J. 



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



Delaware Mrs. Wm. S. Hilles, Delainore Place, Wilmington. 



Maryland Miss Anne Weston Whitney. 715 St. Paul street. Baltimore. 



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



Virginia Mrs. Frederick E. Town, Glencarlyn. 



South Carolina Miss S. A. Smyth, Legare street, Charleston. 



Florida Mrs. I. Vanderpool, Maitland. 



Missouri August Reese, 2516 North Fourteenth street, St. Eouis. 



Ohio Mrs. D. Z. McClelland, 5265 Eastern ave., Cincinnati. 



Indiana W. W. Woolen, Indianapolis. 



Illinois Miss Mary Drummond, 20S West street, Wheaton. 



Iowa Mrs. L. E. Felt, Keokuk. 



Wisconsin Mrs. Reuben G. Thwaits, 260 Langdon street, Madison. 



Minnesota Miss Sarah L. Putnam, 125 Inglehart street, St. Paul. 



Wyoming Mrs. N. R. Davis. Cheyenne. 



Kentucky Ingram Crockett, Henderson. 



Tennessee Mrs. C. C. Conner, Ripley. 



California Mrs. George S. Gay, Redlands. 



A Midwinter Meditation 



Within the past dozen years the position 

 of the song liirci in the community has un- 

 dergone a radical change, from being a tar- 

 get for any and every gun, a prisoner for any- 

 one who would cage it, empaled on skewers 

 for pan and hat alike, its eggs the acknowl- 

 edged perquisite of every biped who chose 

 to collect, it is today accorded a place as a 

 citizen of the commonwealth and laws are 

 being continually enacted that, if carried 

 out, wouiti afford all the protection possible 

 in a country whose material growth is con- 

 tinually abs()rl)ing open common, woodlaiul 

 and river front. 



Witii the change of sentiment has come a 

 like ciiange in the methods of bird-study. 

 The work of the analytic ornithologist is 

 juMlv ropcctcd ;i> ot <il(l. iiul the trend is 

 toward tile study ot tlie living bird, the 



camera supplanting the gun; but just how 

 far this is effective remains to be proved. 

 One would think that this change should 

 rob investigation of well-nigh all its dangers 

 at least as far as concerns the bird, but I am 

 convinced it is oftentimes (juite the reverse. 



The miscellaneous collecting of eggs and 

 the skins of song-birds in their attractive 

 nesting plumage should of course be pro- 

 hibited, but not more vehemently than cer- 

 tain methods of gunless bird-study — I refer 

 to the harrying of nesting birds in order to 

 watcii, and photograph perhaps, the various 

 processes of incubation and nutrition ; also 

 the careless method of interesting children 

 in watching ami even liamlling nestlings to 

 the point of driving parents to leave the 

 nest without giving a thought to the rights 

 of the birds in the matter. 



The conscientious stiulent \\ ho builds a 



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