2 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



FRIENDS IN VIRGINIA 



Often the Secretary is surprised to find how far the influence of the 

 Audubon Society work goes and at what distant points we have friends who 

 are interested. A letter recently from Yancey, Virginia, suggests this. There, 

 in the Archdeaconry of the Blue Ridge, just on the edge of the Valley of the 

 Shenandoah, Rev. Frank S. Persons, II, is in charge of three mission churches 

 among the mountaineers. He wrote that he wanted to start a campaign among 

 die children of the mission schools for the protection of birdlife. Literature 

 of both the Massachusetts Society and the National Association was sent to 

 him, with a result that Mr. and Mrs. Persons and three teachers of St. Steph- 

 ens School became members of the Massachusetts Society and forty of the 

 younger school children formed a junior class of the National Association. 

 Mr. Persons writes that he thinks tliis is the first junior club to be organized 

 among the mountain children of that section of Virginia. Mr. Persons is 

 doing a wonderful work among these mountain people. 



CHECK-LISTS 



The following have sent in lists of birds of the year 1921 on the Audu- 

 bon Society's Check-Lists with the total number of birds seen : Mr. and Mrs. 

 George E. Burbank, Sandwich, Mass. 89; Lucy T, Winsor, 70; Mr. and Mrs. 

 Harris C. Lovell, Osterville, 51; Florence H. Read, Barre, 67; William C. 

 Wheeler, Local Secretary, Walpole, 60; Mrs. Frank H. Clapp, Southampton, 

 7] ; Robert William Burke, Duxbury, 70; Miss Bessie A. Graves, Southamp- 

 ton, 96; Maude A. Graves, Southampton, 78; Robert W. Merrick, Quincy, 

 139. Besides the birds on the Check-List, Mr. Merrick reported also the 

 Seaside Sparrow, the Goshawk, the Sickle-bill Curlew, and the Hudsonian 

 Godwit. Some of these are unusual birds nowadays and their presence adds 

 to the interest of his, the longest, list. Maude A. Graves, of Southampton 

 appends some interesting foot-notes as follows: June 19, downy woodpecker 

 brought young to suet; June 26, saw albino purple finch; September 20, 

 hummingbird last seen; January 3, a flock of pine grosbeaks have been here 

 about six weeks. Mr. and Mrs. George E. Burbank had the pleasure of enter- 

 taining an orange-crowned warbler, which daily ate suet at their feeding sta- 

 tion from February 2 to February 19. 



The Society is glad to furnish these Check-Lists to anyone wishing to 

 note their bird discoveries on them from day to day. The editors of The 

 Bulletin appreciate having these lists sent in and realize the fact that condi- 

 tions vary so much that a comparatively small list is no discredit to any 

 observer. Let us have as many people as possible working with these 

 Check-Lists in order that the returns may yearly be greater. 



PURPLE MARTINS 



It seems as if more people were putting out martin-houses this spring 

 than ever before. At present purple martins are scarce or wanting through- 

 out Massachusetts. One reason may be that the martin-houses which, in 

 former times, were abundantly supplied for them have of late years fallen 

 into disuse. It is good to believe that the fashion may revive. The editors of 

 The Bulletin would be very glad to receive information concerning the 

 whereabouts of purple martins, of cliff, or, as they are also called, eave 

 swallows, which formerly built in the State in certain places under the eaves 

 of buildings, or of bank swallows, which nest in holes in sandbanks. None 

 of these birds seem as common as they formerly were in Massachusetts. 



