THE AUDUBON NOTE BOOK. 



AUDUBON SOCIETY. 



The registered membership of the Society at the 

 close of November was 48,518, showing an increase 

 of ^72 during the month. These were drawn from 

 the following sources: 



New York 220 Maryland 3 



New Jersey 24 Illinois 3 



Massachusetts 53 South Carolina i 



Maine 3 



Vermont 2 



Connecticut 17 



Rhode Island 6 



New Hampshire i 



Pennsylvania 37 



Missouri 77 



Texas 4 



Indiana i 



Ohio I 



Germany 2 



Switzerland i 



West Indies 76 



472 



C. F. Amery, General Secretary. 



DISCONTINUANCE OF THE "AUDUBON 

 MAGAZINE." 



The publication of the Audubon Magazine will 

 cease with this issue, which completes the second 

 annual volume. The AuDUBON Magazine was 

 started in the hope that by spreading a knowledge 

 of birds and of their economic importance we should 

 materially further the objects of the Audubon So- 

 ciety, but while the Society was established on phil- 

 anthropic grounds and with the clear understanding 

 that it would involve some cost to its promoters, it 

 was hoped that the Magazine would have been in 

 such demand as to render it self-supporting. But 

 after two years of effort in which we have been 

 earnestly supported by a great many of the Local 

 Secretaries of the Society, and notably by Mr. J. L. 

 Davison, of Lockport, N. Y.; Miss Mary Bartol, of 

 South Boston, Mass. ; Dr. R. L. Walker, of Mans- 

 field Valley, Pa., and Miss E. B. Barry, of German- 

 town, Pa., we have no such subscription list as is 

 fairly remunerative for the trouble and expense in- 

 volved in the publication of the magazine; we have 

 consequently decided to suspend its issue with the 

 close of the second volume. Our friends will bear 

 in mind that we have maintained the Audubon move- 

 ment at our own cost, and we shall gladly take all 

 necessary measures for its continuance and spread, 

 until the people are thoroughly aroused on the sub- 

 ject, but the Mag.\zine, although it has done some 

 good, is not essential to the progress of the move- 

 ment, and as its preparation calls for a great deal 

 more labor than our tusy staff can well devote to it, 

 we have decided to discontinue it. We believe this 

 decision will carry a feeling of relief to our many 

 local secretaries who have exerted themselves to pro- 

 cure subscriptions, an uncongenial task at the best. 



For all good offices in this direction we desire to 

 express our cordial thanks. 



In all other respects the work of the Society will 

 be conducted as heretofore, and printed supplies 

 furnished free of cost as at present. The first 

 and second volumes of the Audubon Magazine, 

 neatly bound in cloth, are for sale for one dollar each. 

 The second volume will be ready this month. Sub- 

 scribers who have kept their copies in good condition, 

 can send them in and have them bound for fifty cents 

 a volume. These two volumes include complete bio- 

 graphies of John James Audubon and Alexander 

 Wilson, the two great pioneer naturalists of America; 

 each monthly number has a bird portrait, reproduced 

 from Audubon's world renowned plates, and the 

 chapters on descriptive and economic ornitholgy con- 

 tain an amount of interesting and instructive infor- 

 mation about birds and their importance in the econ- 

 omy of nature, such as would be sought in vain in 

 any other popular work on natural history. 



We have received some advance subscriptions, 

 which will be refunded as soon as we have leisure ta 

 go over the books. 



MEMBERSHIP FOR DECEMBER. 



The membership of the Society reached 48,862 at 

 close of December, 1888, and as the Society was in- 

 augurated the 14th of February, 1886, we have still 

 six weeks in which to attain to a membership of 

 50,000. 



THE WOOD PEWEE. 



The wood pewee, {Contopus virens) is a common 

 bird, and is a good representative of its class, the 

 flycatchers. Its color is grayish-yellow beneath, and 

 a rather dark olive-green above. The length of the 

 bird is about six inches. In many ways it is a very 

 interesting bird, and its soft musical call note makes 

 it conspicuous among others. The note is very 

 melancholy, and from it the pewee takes its name, 

 for it sounds \-C&e. pee-iveee , drawn out in a plaintive 

 tone, which renders it very pleasing. The nest is a 

 pretty affair, and is placed in the forks of a limb, 

 and covered with lichens, so that it looks very much 

 like the wood and bark and often it is a hard matter 

 to find it. It is composed of bark, dried grasses, 

 and small twigs, held together with silk of cocoons, 

 spiders' webs and fibers of plants. It is lined with 

 dried grass, thistle down and small bits of bark, the 

 whole being as nice a cradle as one could wish for. 

 It resembles the hummingbird's nest, and, with its 

 complement of three, sometimes four or five eggs, it 



