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Bird - Lore 



disposal of the Committee. The details of 

 the work were taken over by William Dutcher 

 then actively engaged in securing protection 

 for the Gulls of New York and New Jersey. 

 Through the Thayer Fund, wardens were 

 employed at the principal colonies in Maine, 

 New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and 

 Virginia, and a careful examination was made 

 of the more important points along the coast 

 from Chesapeake Bay to Long Island to 

 locate the largest colonies. In the following 

 year a comprehensive plan was carried out 

 for securing effective laws to protect sea-birds 

 and prevent traffic in their plumage. As a 

 result the 'A. O. U. Model Law' now known 

 as the 'Audubon Law' was passed in eleven 

 states. 



The man who made this possible was 

 Abbott Handerson Thayer. He was born at 

 Boston, Mass., August 12, 1849, and was the 

 son of Dr. William Henry and Ellen Hander- 

 son Thayer. He was educated in private 

 schools and from early childhood he painted 

 animals. At the age of sixteen, having de- 

 cided to make painting his profession, hespent 

 four years, from 1875 to 1879, ^.t the Ecole 

 des Beaux Arts in Paris. He was fifty years 

 of age when he actively entered the field of 

 bird-protection, and up to the time of his 

 death, on May 29, 1921, he maintained his 

 interest in the work. His accomplishments 

 in the realm of art and his contributions to 

 the theory of protective coloration may be 

 found elsewhere, while the details of the bird- 

 protective work which he made possible will 

 be found in the annual reports on the Thayer 

 Fund in 'The Auk' and in Bird-Lore. 



The work of collecting this fund devolved 

 almost entirely on Mr. Thayer who continued 

 it from 1900 until 1905 when the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies was incor- 

 porated and was in a position to insure a 

 regular fund for bird-protection. During the 

 five years that activities were conducted 

 under the Thayer Fund, more than .$12,000 

 was raised: $1,400 in 1900, fi,68o in 1901, 



$1,945 in 1902, $3,603 in 1903, and $4,070 in 

 1 904. Mr. Thayer himself contributed $1 ,000 

 to the fund in 1903. But the size of the fund 

 was less important than the circumstances 

 under which it was collected, for it was more 

 difficult to raise $1,000 for bird-protection in 

 1900 than a much larger sum for the same 

 purpose in 1920. The money was expended 

 not only for warden service, to guard the 

 nesting colonies, but for securing publicity 

 necessary for the enactment of better pro- 

 tective laws. So well directed and effective 

 was the campaign that comprehensive laws 

 were secured in most of the coastal states and 

 most of the important colonies of plume-birds 

 from Maine to Florida were placed under the 

 charge of special wardens. 



Thayer's active interest in bird-protection 

 was manifested at a psychological moment 

 when the destruction of sea-birds for mil- 

 linery purposes was at its height, when the 

 second Audubon movement was just getting 

 under way, and when the bird-protective 

 forces were groping their way, seeking means 

 to check the destruction which was increasing 

 on all sides. The time was ripe for action 

 but it remained for an artist rather than an 

 ornithologist or a business man to galvanize 

 the ideal into a practical reality and to 

 demonstrate that bird-protection could be 

 placed on a working basis. As Dutcher well 

 said in referring to Thayer in his first annual 

 report on the fund: "Where he should have 

 received encouragement, i. e., among or- 

 nithologists, he met with discouragement 

 . . [but] by his personal courage and faith 

 he accomplished what others said could not 

 be done." It is perhaps not too much to say 

 that this practical demonstration and the 

 success of the work conducted under the 

 Thayer Fund was in large measure respon- 

 sible for the endowment of the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies which later 

 made possible the development of warden 

 and educational work on its present broad 

 and permanent basis. 



HIKING FOR THE BIRDS 



In Pittsburgh, Pa., there lives a gentleman 

 who for some years has been conducting an 

 unicjue undertaking with boys, which con- 



sists of a long bicycle hike during the summer 

 months. This active worker is Mr. F. C. 

 Copp. The present season the expedition 



