The Brookline Bird Club 



By CHARLES B. FLOYD, Vice-President 



THE second annual report of The Brookline, Massachusetts, Bird Club 

 covers the activity of this organization along the following lines laid 

 out last year: 



1. Establishment of a bird sanctuary. 



2. Lectures and 'round-table talks.' 



3. Walks and field study. 



4. Bird exhibition. 



The interest in bird study steadily increases among old and young, and, 

 while a few members dropped from the roll, this year the membership has 

 advanced well beyond the five hundred mark, so that our club is now the 

 largest of its kind in the state. 



Among the objects incorporated in the constitution is the establishment of 

 a bird sanctuary in Brookline. Many plans have been considered, and it was 

 found impossible to establish a sanctuary similar to that at Meriden, N. H., 

 for the town has grown to the size of a city with a population considerably 

 more than thirty thousand. Many of the largest and finest estates for which 

 Brookline was famous a few years ago have been broken into lots for three- 

 deckers and other buildings. From lack of any area of open land of sufficient 

 size, the sanctuary would have to lie on the outskirts of the town, and be 

 composed of woodland owned by the town of Brookline, and the estates of 

 such owners as would be willing to have their land posted. On the face of it, 

 the task looked like a hard one. 



Brookline was the second town in Massachusetts to avail itself of a recent 

 act of the legislature which permitted the appointment of a town bird-warden. 

 Mr. Daniel Lacey, who is the warden, is also the superintendent of the forestry 

 ■department of the town, and through his splendid work the entire town is 

 now a sanctuary. An open season on Pheasants was declared last fall for the 

 iirst time, and men and boys with guns and dogs tramped over private property 

 shooting at anything that could fly, regardless of all signs and protests. A 

 great deal of agitation over this indiscriminate shooting arose from all over 

 the state, and during it Mr. Lacey secured the consent of the owners of private 

 •estates to have their land posted and placed under his jurisdiction. The bird 

 sanctuary is an accomplished fact, and it is now unlawful to fire a gun within 

 the limits of the town of Brookline in the pursuit of game. 



Last year the club met, one evening a month, for a lecture on some subject 

 •of bird study. It was found that this was not sufficient to meet the demand, 

 so another meeting was called each month and held for a 'round-table talk.' 

 These meetings are very informal and are most popular. Some groups of 

 birds are discussed or some phase of bird study, and after the address of the 

 leader of the meeting, it is thrown open for informal discussion and questions; 



^358) 



