Report of the National Committee for 1904 6i 



enough in membership, and consequently are hampered for workers and 

 financial support. How can this be remedied? 



1. By preparing a concise and effective appeal, stating the objects of the 

 Society and asking all persons who are interested in birds or nature to join. 



2. Asking for persons who will act as local secretaries. 



3. Getting every paper in your state to publish your appeal once or 

 twice. The Audubon Societies do not avail themselves enough of the sup- 

 port, aid and influence of the public press. The columns of the news- 

 papers are always open to any great popular movement. 



4. Getting the boys and girls to act on committees for addressing 

 envelopes and folding circulars, and thus distributing them by the thousands, 

 when a single overworked secretary could prepare only a few hundreds. 



5. By making special efforts to secure bird and nature libraries and illus- 

 trated bird lectures to be loaned free to all applicants. 



6. By trying to secure the influence and cooperation of women's clubs 

 and especially trying to get them to refrain from using aigrettes. 



The fifth suggestion is for every Society to have a law committee who 

 should prepare a circular giving the names of the state officials charged with 

 the duty of bird and game protection, with the names and addresses of the 

 special or local officers. The information should also embrace the law and 

 how it is enforced. This circular should be distributed broadcast through- 

 out the state, and the press should be asked to publish the same. Warning 

 notices should be prepared for tacking on trees and public places, and if there 

 is a large foreign element in the population some warning notices should be 

 printed in the foreign language most used. The principal foreign offenders 

 are Italians, Poles and Germans, who congregate in or about the large cen- 

 ters of population. 



Further suggestions will be made by the National Committee from 

 time to time through our organ, BiRD-LoRE. 



Thayer Fund. — It is gratifying to be able to report that contributions 

 to the Thayer Fund, the financial support of the National Committee, 

 are growing more liberal each year. In 1900 this fund was $1,400; 1901, 

 $1,680; 1902, $1,945; 1903, $3,054; and during the present year, $3,731. 



The following table shows where the citizens are most interested in the 

 preservation of birds, as indicated by the amount of funds contributed: 

 Massachusetts, $2,027 ; New York, $1,212; Michigan, $130; Connecti- 

 cut, $93; Rhode Island, $65 ; Pennsylvania, $63 ; Switzerland, $25 ; New 

 Jersey, $23; Illinois, $16; Vermont, $15; Canada, $14; District of Colum- 

 bia, $ii; Maine, $10; Ohio, $11; Wisconsin, $5. 



Bird Protection Abroad. — The Sub-Committee on Foreign Relations has 

 not been idle during the past year, and it is pleased to be able to report the 

 following: The very pleasant relations existing between the English and 

 American Societies for the Protection of Birds is every day becoming more 



