

The dooryard of the president of the Meriden Bird Club. More than one hundred redpolls and 

 pine siskins feeding on hemp seed which has been scattered over the surface of the snow 



WHAT ONE VILLAGE IS DOING FOR THE BIRDS 



By Ernest Harold Baynes 



1HAVE always had the firm coiiA'ic- 

 tion that if people could learn to 

 know the birds better and study 

 the best means of attracting and pro- 

 tecting them, the education of the people 

 would in itself make legislation less 

 needed, gi^'e better laws, and laws that 

 would he kept. It was with this idea 

 in mind that I began three years ago to 

 interest the people in the little village of 

 Meriden, New Hampshire, in becoming 

 better acquainted with the birds. In 

 order to do this, I gave in the chapel of 



I An address delivered before the American 

 Ornithologists' Union at its last session, at the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York 

 City. 



the Kiml)all Union Academy an illus- 

 trated lecture which laid stress upon the 

 economic value of birds, and in which I 

 urged the people of Meriden, and espe- 

 cially the students of the Academy, to 

 start a movement looking to the organi- 

 zation of a bird club. The matter was 

 immediately taken up and with the assis- 

 tance of the Academy a bird club was 

 formed with a membership of sixty, for 

 " the increase and protection of our local 

 wild birds, the stimulation of interest in 

 bird life and the gradual establishment 

 of a model bird sanctuary." 



Starting with the idea that birds are 

 very much like human beings in that 



