Vol. XXI PuTCHER, Report of Cotnmiitee on Bird Protection. I ^Q 



The lecture has been given many times before audiences varying 

 in numbers up to three or four hundred. Three sets of colored 

 plates of birds are owned and loaned for class work. Fifty sets of 

 the Massachusetts Audubon Bird Charts have been distributed 

 among the local secretaries. Over 18,500 leaflets and law posters 

 have been distributed during the past year. Of these nearly 

 1,500 were sent directly to the milliners, live bird dealers and 

 wholesale butchers in Greater New York. The special circular 

 sent directed their attention to the State and Federal laws pro- 

 tecting birds, and requested a strict observance of the same. 

 Eleven new local secretaries have been added during the past year, 

 making the number at the present time 68. The total member- 

 ship of the society is 3,418. The Hon. Charles R. Skinner, Sup- 

 erintendent of Public Instruction, has agreed to send a copy of 

 the National Committee leaflet No. 2, ' Ornithology in the Schools,' 

 to every school in the State early in the coming year. 



North Carolina. 



Legislation. — The bird laws of this State are very unsatisfac- 

 tory. A few birds receive protection a portion of the year only, 

 the balance none at all. County laws now in force should be 

 superseded by one law for the whole State, which should be com- 

 prehensive and stringent. In few States on the Atlantic Coast 

 has there been such a wholesale slaughter of bird life as in North 

 Carolina. When thousands of game birds are killed in a single 

 season for the feathers alone it is time to cry, halt ! and for the 

 strong arm of the law to interfere. Until the legislature of North 

 Carolina sees fit to pass an effective bird law this slaughter will 

 continue, but it is to be hoped that one will be enacted before it is 

 too late. 



Warden System. — No wardens were employed by the Thayer 

 Fund, as it has been found useless to engage wardens where there 

 is no law to be enforced. When a good bird law is placed on the 

 statute books of North Carolina, wardens will be at once 

 employed to guard all of the colonies of sea birds that remain on 

 the coast. 



Audubon Work. — The Audubon Society of North Carolina 



