84 



Bird -Lore 



ers on display in the theater. Mrs. Mur- 

 ray was dispatched to the scene. She in- 

 formed the management of her purpose 

 and went behind the scenes to make a 

 closer inspection of the plumes. She said 

 she found they were real, and informed the 

 singer of the Oregon law." 



Beginning this year, the Field Colum- 

 bia Museum of Chicago is to put into 

 operation a systematic plan of having some 

 of its collections of mounted wild birds 

 used in the public schools, somewhat after 

 the manner which has been employed for 

 several years by the American Museum of 

 Natural History in New York City. It had 

 long been felt that the collections were not 

 of so much use to the public as they might 

 be made. It was to supply such facilities 

 as these for object lessons in the public 

 schools that N. W. Harris, a Chicago ban- 

 ker, conceived the plan of extending the 

 Field Museum into the schoolroom, and 

 in December, 191 1, donated $250,000 to 

 carry out the work. Long a friend of the 

 Field Museum, he had with others realized 

 that the museum was not in some ways 

 reaching the people as it should. He had 

 studied museum reports and saw that out 

 of a public school membership of 280,000 

 the total number that had visited the mu- 

 seum during the year had been about 

 22,000, and that of the latter number the 

 vast majority had poorly comprehended 

 what they saw; for teachers had reported 

 that school-day visits to the museum were 

 generally regarded by the pupils as holi- 

 days, valuable because they afforded a 

 variety from school routine. 



Mr. Harris believed that the museum 

 contained splendid opportunities to aid in 

 the education of the young, if a different 

 method of seeking to reach them with the 



riches were adopted. Accordingly he of- 

 fered to cooperate with the Field Museum 

 in extending the institution into the class- 

 rooms of certain grades of the public school 

 through the means of little traveling mu- 

 seums, or cabinets, placed in the class- 

 rooms of certain grades at certain intervals 

 accompanied by brief lectures descriptive 

 of the cabinets, and elaborating the labels 

 attached to the specimens. The result was 

 the foundation of $250,000 which Mr. Har- 

 ris decided upon, after he had advised 

 with leading teachers and sociologists. 



Mr. Bowdish 



Mr. B. S. Bowdish, who since November 

 1905, has been chief clerk in the home 

 office of the Association, left our employ on 

 January 17, to devote his entire time, in 

 future, to the position of Secretary-Treas- 

 urer of the New Jersey State Audubon 

 Society. It will be recalled that it was 

 largely through the efforts of Mr. Bowdish 

 that the New Jersey Audubon Society was 

 reorganized and incorporated in 19 10. On 

 December 29 of that year, the board of 

 directors met, and he was elected secretary. 

 From that moment the New Jersey work 

 began to expand, and since then the So- 

 ciety has in every way been a wide-awake 

 and going institution. In addition to his 

 duties with the National Association, Mr. 

 Bowdish has been able to bring the New 

 Jersey work up to such a stage that the 

 demand for his entire time to look after its 

 welfare has become imperative. For the 

 present, his office will be at Demarest. Mr. 

 Bowdish takes with him the good-will of 

 the directors and office force, and we proph- 

 esy for him the great success which his 

 conscientious devotion to the work so 

 warmly merits. 



