FIFTH ANNUAL EFFORT OF THE STATE 

 ORNITHOLOGIST. 



Educational Work op the Year. 



The report entitled '' A History of Game Birds, Wild 

 Fowl and Shore Birds of Xew England and Adjacent 

 States " was published in October. The volume, as issued, 

 comprises 622 pages, and is illustrated bj half-tone plates, 

 line cuts and a colored frontispiece. Under the laAV, the 

 work was distributed to all free public libraries and high 

 schools in the State, to some public officials, to those who 

 contributed material, and the remaining copies are to be sold 

 at $1 each, plus postage. The active demand for the book 

 shows that it fills a want. The third edition of " Useful 

 Birds and their Protection " is almost exhausted, and the 

 revision of this work for publication has been undertaken. 



The secretary of the State Board of. Agriculture has sug- 

 gested that the ornithologist prepare a bulletin on rats and 

 methods of destroying them. Many people who have at- 

 tempted to protect birds have given up keeping cats and 

 their premises have been overrun with rats. Bats are very 

 destructive in summer to the eggs and young of wild birds, 

 particidarly game birds. Experiments have been made to 

 determine the best and least expensive methods of destroy- 

 ing rats. The experiments have not been completed, but the 

 bulletin probably will be ready for the printer sometime 

 during the year 1913. Forty-one lectures have been given 

 by the ornithologist during the year. The audiences have 

 aggregated about 5,000 people. This is a lower aggregate 

 than heretofore, which may be accounted for by the large 

 number of storms which happened to occur on the dates on 

 which lectures were arranged. 



Bird Study in the Schools. 

 Bjornson, the jSTorAvegian poet, said in a lecture delivered 

 by him when abroad : — 



