SUPPLEMENT. 



REPORT OF THE A. O. U. COMMITTEE ON THE 



PROTECTION OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 



FOR THE YEAR 1903. 



BY WILLIAM DUTCHER, CHAIRMAN. 



Plates XII-XVIII. 



The Audubon Societies and the generous subscribers to the 

 Thayer Fund have every reason to congratulate themselves upon 

 the steady progress of bird protection work in the United States 

 ■during the past twelve months. The present outlook of the work 

 is like the intermittent notes of birds before the break of day, or 

 the first gleam of Heaven's amber in the eastern gray; if those 

 who are now working may not see the full meridian sunlight yet 

 the results of 1903 are an earnest of what we hope may be accom- 

 plished in the next decade. After all, it is honest love for our 

 work, honest sorrow for the ills which we see about us in the bird 

 world, honest work for the day that is present with us, and honest 

 hope for to-morrow that must govern our actions. When we rise 

 above the sordidness that so often hinders spiritual work, and learn 

 to believe that it is better sometimes to invest in deeds of mercy to 

 God's helpless creatures than it is to invest in the best of securities, 

 we will find that our works of love are better paying investments 

 and will bring us in something far higher and nobler. Our labors 

 will go forth to bless our country and make the world about us 

 fairer and better ; in addition it will react and make ourselves not 

 only happier but better, as we will realize that unselfish work is far 

 better than work for personal display or self aggrandizement. 



The year's results have been so full of interest, have developed 

 so rapidly, and bid so fair to develop more rapidly in the future, 

 that it becomes necessary to make a very detailed report under the 

 head of each Commonwealth ; this is done in order that each soci- 

 ety may have a general idea of what each other society is doing 

 and thus the strong, aggressive bodies become an example and 

 lesson to those that are not so successful ; new ideas of work are 



