112 DuTciiKR, Report of Committee on Bird Protection. fu"!^ 



wild birds to be killed or shipped from those islands for millinery 

 purposes. 



The question of bird protection is important enough for the 

 American societies to agitate and recommend an International 

 Congress for the purpose of devising means of preserving the 

 wild birds of the world. We should at this Congress of bird 

 students and bird protectors send words of greeting and warning 

 to like bodies in other portions of the world, and to that end your 

 Committee suggest that a committee of five members be appointed 

 by the President of the A. O. U. to prepare and forward memorials 

 to all bird protective societies in England, (Germany, Holland, 

 Japan and Australia, or to any other foreign country from which 

 wild bird skins are exported. The committee should be composed 

 of three PVUows of the Union and two Fellows who are members 

 of the National Committee of Audubon Societies. 



One of the vital necessities in movements of this character is 

 money ; without it the work is seriously handicapped and retarded. 

 During the past three years an expenditure of less than eighteen 

 hundred dollars per annum has served, by the strictest economy, 

 to meet the necessary demands of warden service, printing leaf- 

 lets for educational work, postage, and actual necessary traveling 

 expenses. No salary or compensation of any kind has been paid. 

 The work, however, is expanding so rapidly and the demand for 

 bird literature is so great from all parts of the country that a much 

 larger sum of money must be received this year than heretofore 

 or tlie Committee cannot answer all of the calls upon it. The 

 detail necessitates the employment of clerical aid in order to give 

 prompt attention to the large correspondence and other office 

 work. Additional wardens will be necessary this year, more of 

 the 18,000,000 school children should be reached, more farmers 

 should be educated in the economics of birds than ever before. 

 These are the plans it is hoped to be able to carry out if the 

 friends and lovers of the birds will give the financial support. 

 The sordid aspect of continually holding up to view the money 

 question is disagreeable but is unfortunately necessary. Too few 

 people realize their public social responsibilities. If they have 

 been good to the family they tiiink their whole duty performed, 

 but there is a broader field — the civic duty of doing good to their 



