State Reports 83 



''At the annual meeting in April a new committee was suggested, which 

 has since come into being with some fifty members, a committee on mem- 

 bership, whose duty it is to bring as many new members as possible into 

 our flock. 



"Our illustrated lecture has done good work; the two libraries have 

 been little used. The junior work, under Mrs. Wm. M. Scudder, has 

 been encouraging and the teachers are proving themselves good helpers. 



"We have spent during the year $225.61 and have received $232.76, but, 

 thanks to a balance on hand from last year, we closed our year with a 

 balance of ^64.31. 



"Out of 102 counties in the state the secretary had letters from 47, 

 but we have very few local branches. 



"We hold two general meetings in Chicago, and a goodly number of 

 other meetings have been held in the state." 



Indiana. — The Audubon movement in this state is on a solid and pro- 

 gressive basis and is doing a great work in the schools. The report of 

 Miss Howe, the secretary, gives some of the interesting details. 



"The Indiana Audubon Society has continued its activities, especially 

 emphasizing the work among the children and through the press. 



"During the spring months bird-talks were widely given in the schools 

 of the cities. 



"The Indianapolis News Audubon Society, an auxiliary of the State 

 Society, furnished somewhere about seventeen thousand bird buttons to the 

 school children of the city and state; the ' News' bought the buttons and 

 distributed them through the sub-stations or by mail. The payment for a 

 button consisted of a signed pledge to protect the birds. 



"The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in the last Arbor and 

 Bird Day Annual, devoted over forty pages to the Audubon work in one 

 way or another, and to the birds. These annuals are now being sent to 

 the i6,ooo teachers in the state, and will be used by nearly 500,000 pupils, 

 at the annual Bird Day of the schools of this state. The members of the 

 Audubon Society very gladly helped in getting the matter for the annual 

 which serves as the bird text -book for many teachers. Again and again has 

 the state society had reason for congratulation in the fact that the State 

 Superintendent is a man alive to the great value of bird study by the pupils. 



"Audubon societies, as a rule, are not overburdened with money, and 

 the Indiana Society is no exception to the rule. Hence, when we have 

 found friends of the birds who were in a position to do for them what 

 we could not, we have helped these friends in their larger work, — for 

 instance, few societies could have afforded the large outlay for bird buttons 

 or could have put into general circulation the bird pledge which was pub- 

 lished in every issue of the ' News ' for the latter part of the spring. All 



