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Bird- Lore 



provement of game laws and laws protecting non-detrimental birds and the 

 aiding in the enforcement of those in existence; and fourthly, a persistent 

 educational campaign regarding the interest and value of bird-life. 



It so happened that the first efforts of the club were not directed toward 

 the fulfilling of any one of these avowed purposes, but rather toward the 

 accomplishment of a somewhat unexpected conservational movement, which at 

 the same time gained for it its bird sanctuary, the Renwick Wildwood. The city 

 of Ithaca, at the head of Cayuga Lake, is the unusual possessor of a piece of 

 woodland of about one hundred acres lying between the city and the lake 

 front, which is remarkable for the luxuriance of its flora and fauna, containing 



ONE OF THE 'BIRD-SCOUT' BRIGADES 



many plants and trees rare elsewhere in New York state, and an abundance 

 of bird-life scarcely to be excelled outside of the tropics. Such is the rank 

 growth of the vegetation that it appealed to some of the city fathers, who knew 

 it only from the windows of passing trains, as a jungle, a blot upon the fair 

 name of the city. A wave of civic improvement swept over the Common 

 Council, carrying with it an appropriation for clearing the 'jungle' and estab- 

 lishing a clean city park. This was the call for the bird club to act, for it 

 knew well the value of the woodland in its natural state and the barrenness of 

 the ordinary city park. A campaign of education through lectures and articles 

 in the local papers followed, and resulted not only in saving the woodland 

 almost intact but also in having it set aside as a natural park or bird sanctuary 

 under the control of the Cayuga Bird Club. 



