OF NATURAL HISTORY OF CANADA 



INTRODUCTION 



SOME of our great thinkers who are well versed in the natural 

 science and whose opinions carry great weight have expressed 

 their disappointment at the great lack in our organization for 

 the protection of icild life and fish, and this association has had its 

 origin to supply the desideratum and to invoke public bodies to co- 

 operate icith our governments both federal and provincial with the 

 praiseworthy object of improving present conditions. 



The excellent results obtained by that great and well kn^wn insti- 

 tution in the United States called ^'The National Association of 

 Audubon Societies'^ and which originated in Xew York in 1886, 

 biased the way, thanks to the noble initiative of Dr. George Bird Grinnell, 

 Editor of ^^Forest and Stream''. It only remained for us Canadians 

 to adapt and put into practice the laws and regulations laid down by 

 our co-workers in the United States and with the same object in view 

 the "Provencher Society of Natural History of Canada'' obtained 

 letters patent from Ottawa, with' very extended powers. 



Our society, whose name will recall the remembrance of one of our 

 great Canadian naturatists, a man of esteemed celebrity, should stimu- 

 late our interest in the study of natural history and thu^ perpetuate 

 among our children especially a study fraught with so many beneficient 

 and idilitarian advantages such as the protection of our wild birds 

 and animals and the various modes of developing and preserving 

 our fisheries. 



It has for its object the creation among our people, young and old, 

 of that noble instinct of preservation which has been nurturred and 

 developed for many years with our American neighbors, thanks to the 

 admirable methods pursued by the Audubon Society. 



This society started in 1910 its educational campaign in the 

 schools with such energy and forethought that to-day 600,000 children 

 and 30,000 teachers receive systematic instruction by means of folders 

 such as our own Society are now circulating in this Province. Six 

 million folders or pamphlets are annually distributed by this Asso- 

 ciation in the United States and well-nigh 8,000 pupils in Canada 

 are the recipients of this educational propaganda. In this way 

 has the Audubon Society succeeded in awakening the attention 

 of the public for the protection of the indigenous species and to-day it 



