350 Bird - Lore 



and teachers, but before the rush could be stopped 2,331 appHcants came in 

 and had to be denied the privilege. Your Agent immediately started a 

 state-wide inquiry to increase the funds for leaflets for the coming year. To 

 date, $836 has thus been received and a correspondingly increased number 

 of leaflets will be printed, thanks to the generosity of several hundred friends 

 of the birds. 



The work of the year has been far too varied for detailed mention. Two 

 specimen items may be given, however. As a part of Worcester's April Bird 

 Festival, your Agent, accompanied by the Rev. Arthur E. Wilson, toured the 

 outlying schools of the city, giving a brief talk to the children on Junior work. 

 Mr. Wilson spoke also, giving some of his excellent whistling reproductions of 

 bird music. In the afternoon the grades of the nearby schools assembled in the 

 high school auditorium where a more elaborate program was given, an illus- 

 trated talk, bird movies, and whistling. Nearly a thousand children were 

 present. In the evening this program was repeated to an adult audience. It 

 was a busy day but a useful one for the work. Again, during a part of June and 

 all July your Agent spent one day a week at the International Scout Leader's 

 Camp at Plymouth, teaching birds to Girl Scout leaders from all over the 

 country as well as some from abroad. Here again the opportunity was seized 

 to make the work of the National Association clearly known to Scout leaders 

 in nature work from many distant states as well as to those of Massachusetts. 

 Your Agent finds the gospel of bird-protection everywhere received gladly. 



REPORT OF WILLIAM L. FINLEY, FIELD AGENT FOR 

 THE PACIFIC COAST STATES 



Our field-work during the past year has been mostly in various parts of 

 California, especially through the southern part of the state, where we worked 

 through the winter and up to June i. An attempt was made to find the home 

 of the California Condor, in order to get a life series of motion pictures of this 

 rare bird. We were unsuccessful because the birds have been exterminated 

 in the locality where we had found them in 1906. We secured an interesting 

 series of motion pictures of some of the desert birds that live in the last area of 

 ^he desert country remaining in the region east of Los Angeles. Where we 

 photographed Least Terns in 1906, the colonies were entirely gone. Because 

 of increased settlement along the coast and the exploitation of oil-fields in 

 these localities, it will be but a comparatively short time until the Least Terns 

 will be exterminated in southern California, their last nesting-place on our 

 western borders. But a few small colonies remain. Some remarkable motion 

 pictures were taken of various species of Hummingbirds, Cactus Wrens, 

 California Thrashers, Bush- tits. Barn Owls, several species of bats, and the 

 opossum which, introduced some time ago, has become quite abundant in 

 certain parts of California. 



