142 



Bird - Lore 



FLORENCE MEKRIAM BAILEY 



When George Bird Clrinnell coined the 

 term "Audubon Society," and started the 

 Audubon Movement, in i8S6, one of the 

 first to res])on(l to the call and to go 

 actively into the work was Miss Florence 

 Merriam, who, with Miss Fanny Hardy — 

 now Mrs. Eckstorm, author of several 

 bird-books — in March, 1886, organized 

 the Smith College Audubon Society. Soon 

 afterward Miss Merriam assumed the 

 duties of a local Audubon secretaryship, 

 in northern New York, and also secured 

 local secretaries in several neighboring 

 towns. 



In 1897, when the Audubon Society of 

 the District of Columbia was organized, 

 she was one of its chartered members. For 

 many years, as Mrs. Florence Merriam 

 Bailey, she has been an active member of 

 its executive committee, and, among other 

 duties, has had charge of the annual 

 spring bird-class, one of the most impor- 

 tant features of that Society. That her 

 interest in the work is deep and sympa- 

 thetic to an unusual degree may be shown 

 by a quotation from a letter that she 

 wrote to the California Audubon Society 

 on the occasion of its organization: 



"Wherever you go, study the birds and 

 tell your friends of them. Point out to 

 them the chaste beauty of your exquisitely 

 tinted waterfowl; let them see the glowing 

 splendor of your Tanagers, the flashing 

 jewels of your Hummingbirds. Take them 

 to the fields, that they may listen in rap- 

 ture to the rare voice of your Meadowlark; 

 take them to the deep canyons filled with 

 the flute-like notes of the Canyon Wren; 

 and to the fir forests on the mountain- 

 sides, where their souls will be stirred by 

 the uplifted song of the Thrush. 



"By knowing the birds personally, you 

 will bring to your Audubon work the 

 enkindling spark of enthusiastic friend- 

 ship. In all phases of your work, for 

 yourselves, your friends, your birds, and 

 your children, you have my hearty 

 interest and good wishes. For fifteen 

 years I have been waiting for you to take 

 up the cause of the California birds, and 



for many years I have been working with 

 the children of the West on my heart. 

 Knowing this, you may well believe that 

 I wish your beautiful work an earnest 

 God-speed." 



Mrs. Bailey's natural girlhood's interest 

 in wild birds was greatly quickened by 

 dwelling in a home in which scholarship 

 and a love of scientific accuracy were 

 taught daily; and she had the added 

 advantage of living in a region of northern 

 New York well supplied with bird-life. 

 In a recent letter she wrote: "Having been 

 brought up on Coues's 'Key,' and trained 

 by my brother, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, on 

 leaving College in 1886 I began doing 

 careful field-work." Since that day, no 

 woman has studied the wild birds of 

 America so systematically, so thoroughly, 

 and so carefully as she. The amount of 

 field-work she has done is perfectly aston- 

 ishing, and probably few women have 

 spent so many days in the wilds, or so 

 many nights under canvas, as has Mrs. 

 Florence Merriam Bailey. Her work, 

 partly conducted in company with her 

 brother. Dr. Merriam, and her husband, 

 Mr. Vernon Bailey, has been carried on 

 not only in eastern and southern states 

 and in the Bermudas, but also in Arizona, 

 Oregon, California, North Dakota, Texas, 

 Utah, and New Mexico. 



As a teacher of others, she has given 

 bird-talks and conducted field-classes in 

 bird-study in various parts of the country, 

 and for thirty years her name has been 

 before the public as a writer of popular 

 and scientific articles. The titles of no 

 less than seventy communications pub- 

 lished in The Auk, Bird-Lore, The Condor, 

 Forest and Stream, The Outlook, Popular 

 Science, The American Agriculturist, and 

 elsewhere, have come to my attention. 

 Her first book, "Birds Through An Opera 

 Glass," was published in 1889. This was 

 followed by "My Summer in a Mormon 

 Village," 1895; "A-Birding on a Bronco," 

 1896; and "Birds of Village and Field," 

 1898. 



Her largest and most valuable con- 



