2^irb=ltore 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of The Audubon Societies 



Vol XVII 



July— August, 1915 



No. 4 



The Making of Birdcraft Sanctuary 



By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 

 With photographs by the author and Wilbur F. Smith 



w 



HILE there is nothing new in the 

 idea of song-bird protection by 

 individuals, the setting apart of 

 spaces of land wherein they may find 

 Sanctuary, in the medieval sense of the 

 word, is distinctly novel. The Game Pre- 

 serve is a place where the birds are pro- 

 tected, that they may increase for the 

 ultimate pleasure of the sportsman in 

 shooting them, or, in the broadest sense, 

 for their food value; so that no more senti- 

 ment can be attached to the process than in 

 the breeding and keeping of farm poultry. 

 The Song Bird Sanctuary, however, is an 

 oasis in a desert of material things. In it 

 the bird may lead its own life for that life's 

 sake, and the joy of many of such lives over- 

 flows all arbitrary boundaries in its ethical 

 benefit to the community and state. 



There have always been places where a 

 certain amount of protection was accorded 

 to song birds; for, as a small child, I can 

 remember that my father, on more than one occasion, delayed the mowing of a 

 certain hay-field long beyond the usual time because he valued its crop of 

 Bobolinks even more than the hay. Also, since the firm establishment of the 

 present Audubon Movement by William Dutcher (who must always be 

 regarded as its patron saint, because it was the vital spark of his practical 

 enthusiasm that kept the smoldering fire from extinguishment until it was 



