5oa Bird -Lore 



granted, and I began forthwith. While I never cared to talk to kindergartners 

 or the first grades, I often had to finish up with these, at the request of the 

 superintendent. Permission was given me to go from one room to another, and 

 the teachers were instructed to have the classes give me immediate attention. 

 This resulted in my giving from eight to twelve fifteen-minute talks in the 

 morning. In some of the larger cities I had to work in the schools in the 

 afternoon, and have given as many as eighteen talks in one day. Usually after- 

 noons were given to meeting a committee of the local woman's club, seeing edit- 

 ors of newspapers, visiting the Board of Trade, calling upon leading citizens, and 

 writing letters. At 6.30 p.m. I often gaVe a half-hour talk in one of the moving- 

 picture theaters, as a part of the regular program. This always meant a 

 crowded house. From there I went to the place of my evening meeting, as 

 arranged by those who had it in charge, and gave an hour's talk. Thence to 

 my hotel, where the screen was again stretched and the lantern placed, and 

 again I talked, often for an hour and a half. At these hotel talks I invited 

 questions, and made a special effort to engage the attention of the tourists. I 

 carried 150 lantern-slides, and can truthfully say that never did I show the 

 same combination of slides or give the same talk twice in succession. After 

 consulting with such people in a community as were in position to know, and 

 keeping the figures they gave, I found in the end that at least two-thirds of 

 my total number of adult hearers were tourists. I met them from every state 

 of the Union. Hence the influence of my work was scattered abroad, and not 

 concentrated in Florida. ' 



Every railroad conductor who took up my ticket had to wear an Audubon 

 button as long as I was on his train. I never missed an opportunity to saturate 

 drummers from all points of the compass with the Audubon educational idea. 

 I talked with aU sorts and conditions of men, at all times of the day and night, 

 and was always well received. 



At many places I was met and assisted, but at some had to make all the 

 preparations for meetings unaided. My audiences ranged from eight hundred, 

 at a meeting in St. Augustine, to four at a meeting in Palatka. There was a 

 card-party at Palatka that night. Some of my largest and most enthusiastic 

 meetings were held on Sundays. Women's clubs were uniformly ready to 

 give attention to the Audubon idea, and agreed to appoint bird-committees. 

 Boards of trade wanted to know more of the work, and some took member- 

 ships with either the National Association or the Florida Society. 



REPORT OF WILLIAM L. FINLEY, FIELD AGENT FOR 

 THE PACIFIC-COAST STATES 



Conditions have improved steadily on the Pacific Coast during the past 

 year in favor of wild-bird and animal protection and propagation. The most 

 important fight is now in progress in California, as is related in the report of 



