Cbe Audubon ^octetie^ 



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 



Edited by WILLIAM DUTCHER 



srrespondcnce. and send all r 

 Association of Audubon Soc 



iices for dues and C( 

 141 Broadway. Nc 



York City 



Membership in the National Association 



$5.00 paid annually constitutes a person a Sustain I nj; 

 Member 

 1 1 00. 00 paid atone time constitutes a Life Membership 

 $1,000.00 paid constitutes a person a Patron 

 $5,000.00 paid constitutes a person a Founder 

 $z;.ooo.oo paid constitutes a person a Benefactor 



FORM OF BEQUEST 



/ do hereby ^ive atui bequeath to The 

 National Association of Audubon Socie- 

 ties FOR the Protection of Wild Birds 

 AND Animals (Incorporated), of the City of 

 Neiu York, 



Legislation 



This issue of Bird-Lore might well be 

 called the legislative number, as all of the 

 matter in the Executive Department will 

 relate only to legislative proceedings through- 

 out the country. 



While much of the story will show that 

 the Association has been successful in many 

 of its attempts for better legislation and the 

 defeat of bad legislation, yet, unfortunately, 

 in some important cases the forces that have 

 combined against us have been successful. 

 In the entire experience of the President of 

 the Association in legislative work, the year 

 1907 surpasses ail the others in the number 

 of bird and game bills that have been intro- 

 duced; they certainly number several hun- 

 dred. It is true that many of them are local 

 bills of little importance, but, on the other 

 hand, many of them seem to have emanated 

 from market-hunters and game dealers who 

 are becoming very restive under the pressure 

 of restricted opportunities for killing and 

 selling the fast-disappearing game birds and 

 animals of the country. 



Our great benefactor, Mr. Willcox, 



"builded far better than he knew" when his 

 love for wild life led him to leave to this 

 Association a substantial legacy. If the 

 National Association had not been placed 

 in its present strong position through this 

 benefaction, it would not have been able 

 to carry on the enormous amount of legis- 

 lative work that it has done during the 

 present legislative season. Heretofore, it 

 was only after the most careful consideration 

 and under the most urgent stress of circum- 

 stances that money could be appropriated 

 for legislative work, but this year we have 

 had able and energetic representatives doing 

 missionary work at a number of capitals. 

 The detailed story of legislative work 

 which follows will show to the members of 

 the Association and the readers of Bird- 

 Lore how important this branch of our 

 work is. 



Congress and the Biological Survey 



While the story of how the House Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture attempted to end the 

 existence of this valuable and important 

 Bureau is familiar to many of the members 

 of the Association, because they took an 

 active and prominent part in continuing the 

 Survey, yet to others this episode will be 

 entirely new; further, it is well to place 

 such matters on permanent record. 



When the agricultural appropriation bill 

 was reported in Congress by the committee 

 in charge, it was discovered that no ap- 

 propriation whatever had been made for the 

 Bureau of Biological Survey. This meant 

 that this important and necessary Bureau 

 would be legislated out of existence, which 

 would have been such a serious handicap 

 and loss to the work of the National Associa- 

 tion that it would have taken years to have 

 overcome the setback. There was only one 



(97) 



