What the Bird Club Can Do for the Town 



351 



And all these benefits are in addition to the pleasure derived from the 

 increase of bird life and bird music; in addition to the benefit derived by the 

 farmer and the fruit grower through the destruction of their enemies the 

 weeds, the insects and the rodents, and in addition to the assistance rendered 

 the physicians in their fight against malaria, and other diseases known to be 

 carried by insects of one kind or another. 



The writer believes that a network of such bird clubs spread over the 

 United States would solve, once for all, the problems of wild-bird conservation 

 in this country. But he beheves that it must be a network — not merely a lot 

 of unconnected bird clubs dotted around. There should be an American 

 Federation of Bird Clubs, and, when the movement has progressed far enough, 

 perhaps State Federations as well. Each club might work independently for 

 the welfare of its local birds, but the federation would show a solid, united 

 front when it came to matters of national importance. Such an organization, 

 if it worked in a broad-minded way and kept clear of the sickly sentimentalism 

 which always disgusts real men and women, would become a great power for 

 good, not only along the lines of bird protection, but along the lines of civic 

 improvement, social intercourse, and community interest in general. The 

 writer has already organized about sixty bird clubs in different parts of the 

 country. Perhaps some of these would be willing to form the nucleus of the 

 proposed American Federation, which the writer believes would quickly have 

 a thousand bird clubs upon its rolls. 



ROBIN AT THE BATH 

 Photographed by F, E. Barker, Hamilton, Ohio 



