EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 



Edited by T. GILBERT PEARSON, Secretary 



Address all correspondence, and send all remittances for dues and contributions, to 



the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. 



Telephone, Columbus 7327 



William Butcher, President 

 Frederic A. Lucas, Acting President T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary 



Theodore S. Palmer, First Vice-President Jonathan Dwight, Jr., Treasurer 

 Samuel T. Carter, Jr., Attorney 



Any person, club, school or company in sympathy with the objects of this Association may become 

 a member of it, and all are welcome. 



Classes of Membership in the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild 

 Birds and Animals: 



$5 annually pays for a Sustaining Membership 

 $100 paid at one time constitutes a Life Membership 

 $1,000 constitutes a person a Patron 

 $S,ooo constitutes a person a Founder 

 $25,000 constitutes a person a Benefactor 



Form of Bequest: — I do hereby give and bequeath to the National Association of Audubon 

 Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals (Incorporated), of the City of New York. 



A NATION-WIDE EFFORT TO DESTROY CROWS 



The Sporting Powder Division of E. I. 

 du Pont de Nemours and Company has 

 started a movement which it calls the 

 "National Crow Shoot." An eight-page 

 circular, decorated with a drawing by 

 Kalmbach, has been distributed widely 

 throughout the United States, urging the 

 killing of Crows and offering prizes. A 

 bronze lapel button is to be given to every 

 contestant who, during the year 1919, kills 

 twenty-five Crows. There are also first, 

 second, and third "National Prizes" and 

 first and second "State Prizes" offered to 

 contestants of any state in the Union or 

 any province of Canada. 



The argument made is that the agricul- 

 turists of the country will be far better 

 off if the Crows are killed, and that "It is 

 for this purpose that the National Crow 

 Shoot will be conducted during 1919." 

 For the evident purpose of giving respec- 

 tability to the circular, a quotation is in- 

 serted from Bulletin No. 621 of the Bureau 

 of Biological Survey, in which the author 

 says: "One of the strongest arguments 

 against the Crow," is its destructive- 

 ness to "nesting birds of highly beneficial 

 species." The reader is left with the im- 



( 



pression that the United States Bureau of 

 Biological Survey condemns the Crow. As 

 a matter of fact, the Government publica- 

 tion referred to is a very exhaustive and 

 certainly fair treatise on the subject. Had 

 the author of this circular been interested 

 in doing justice to the Crow rather than 

 in simply finding arguments against it, he 

 might also have quoted from this same 

 bulletin the following extract: 



"The Crow's destruction of insects pre- 

 sents the strongest argument in the bird's 

 favor. Nearly a fifth of the adult Crow's 

 yearly sustenance comes from such sources, 

 and a great part of the insect material is 

 eaten early in spring, a time when the life- 

 cycles of many of the most destructive 

 pests are at their lowest ebb. A little 

 later, nestling Crows appear on the scene, 

 outnumbering their parents two to one, 

 and assist in the work of destruction. Not 

 onl)' do the young birds eat a much larger 

 proportion of insect food than do their 

 parents at the same time of year, but the 

 quantity of food required to develop their 

 rapidly growing bodies is considerably 

 greater. That injurious insects greatly 

 outnumber beneficial insects in the diet of 



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