The Brush Hill Bird Club 



By HARRIS KENNEDY, General Manager 



THE Brush Hill Bird Club of Milton, Mass., was organized as a result of 

 a lecture by Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes of the Meriden Bird Club, in 

 February, 19 13. Further interest in the work was awakened by a 

 series of social evenings, when the Club was addressed by such well-known 

 ornithologists as Mr. Edward Howe Forbush, State Ornithologist of Massa- 

 chusetts, and Mr. Winthrop Packard, Secretary-Treasurer of the Massachu- 

 setts Audubon Society. The question of what the Club could do for the town- 

 ship of Milton soon became a vital matter. We realized that the Club had 

 opportunities for useful service to the community. 



1. The individual members bought and put up about 100 nesting-boxes. 



2. We undertook an educational campaign among the school children of 

 the town, and distributed to the pubhc and private schools, the Public Library 

 and its branch reading-rooms, the three Audubon charts, Trafton's Method of 

 Attracting Birds, and the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association 

 poster, containing the regulations of the Federal Migratory Bird Law and the 

 State Game laws. 



3. The Club undertook to complete for the Milton Public Library its files 

 of bird-magazines, and supply such bird-books as would be useful to the 

 community. 



4. The Club considered the possibilities of starting a bird sanctuary, but it 

 seemed more feasible to further the use of an already established park area in 

 the town. The trustees of Cunningham Park cordially met the suggestion of 

 the Club, and planted shrubs attractive to birds around the small pond area, 

 according to the plans and list of shrubs furnished by Mr. Frederic H. Ken- 

 nard of Boston. In addition to the planting, nesting-boxes were put up, and a 

 large feeding-station, built by the manual-training classes of the Milton High 

 School, was installed. 



5. Under the auspices of the Club, a lecture was given by Mr. Edward 

 Howe Forbush, illustrated with stereopticon views in the large public school 

 assembly hall, on bird nesting-boxes and methods of attracting birds. This 

 was attended by 450 persons, the capacity of the hall. 



6. In order to help the cause, articles applying to bird conservation and 

 the Club's activities were sent to the local newspapers, from time to time. 



7. The Club voted to hold an exhibition to arouse intelligent interest in 

 bird conservation. The exhibition so far fulfilled its purpose that this is the 

 basis and forms the major part of the first report of the Brush Hill Bird Club, 

 issued in 1914, and obtainable from the Club at fifty cents per copy. It is, in 

 reahty, a handbook on bird protection. During the past year, we have had 

 calls for this Report from eighteen states in the Union, and have had excellent 

 notices of the book by the State Ornithologist of Massachusetts in his Annual 



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