Io2 DuTCHER, Report of Cominittee on Bird Protectioti. I Imi 



number of Bluebirds, Red-winged Blackbirds, Song and Savanna 

 Sparrows in his possession. The arrest of the dealer followed; 

 he escaped from the State and is now a fugitive from justice. 



Audubon work. — The Society is aggressively active, as its 

 report shows : " The Society has kept steadily at work during 

 the past year, but there is no gauge to measure the annual har- 

 vest. It is to be hoped that the seed sown may be of a perennial 

 nature. 



"Immediately following the annual meeting last year in October, 

 1500 warning notices to dealers were sent out, calling the atten- 

 tion of the entire millinery and game trade of New York to the 

 law of the State for the protection of birds, and stating that the 

 New York Audubon Society would bring action in every case of 

 violation brought to its notice. The determined and dignified 

 stand thus taken was, undoubtedly, directly responsible for the 

 proposition made last spring by the wholesale milliners of New 

 York which resulted in the step, considered by many the most 

 important event in the history of bird protection, namely, the 

 agreement between the Millinery Merchants' Protective Associa- 

 tion on the one hand, and the Audubon Society of the State of 

 New York on the other. The conditions of this agreement saves 

 our American song birds from the clutches of the millinery trade, 

 and banishes from the American market all gulls, terns, grebes, 

 hummingbirds, and after January, 1904, even the ' Bonnet Martyr,^ 

 the egret, for the term of three years. 



"In addition to the ' Warning to Dealers,' this year the Society 

 has issued ' The Aigrette : An Appeal to Women,' by Mrs. May 

 Riley Smith. 



" The Educational Leaflets issued by the National Committee, 

 of which we are sending out 10,000 copies, we find invaluable. 

 Would that every child in the State might own a set of them ! 



"The law posters have been more widely distributed this year 

 than ever. Finding that lack of sufficient appropriation would 

 prevent the Forest, Fish and Game Commission from complying 

 with our request that the law should be posted on all lands 

 belonging to the State, the Society furnished 1,000 muslin posters, 

 which the Commission placed throughout the Adirondack region. 

 The secretary of the Adirondack Guide Association was also sup- 



