THE AUDUBON NOTE BOOK 



ORGANIZATION OF THE BUFFALO BRANCH. 



During January, our friends in Buffalo emerged 

 from the chrysalis state, having perfected a more 

 complete organization. 



A meeting for local organization was called for 

 Jan. 13, and although many were kept at home by 

 inclement weather, there was no want of enthusiastic 

 speeches nor of assurance of all necessary aid. 



Dr. John W. Parmenter, to whose earnest pleading 

 most of the Buffalo members attribute their awaken- 

 ing, was unanimously elected president. Mrs. Lily 

 Lord Tifft, a vice-president of the Society, and an 

 active working member, accepted the post of local 

 vice-president. Messrs. E. E. Fish, S. A. Roberts, 

 Eben P. Dore, Miss E. M. Chandler and Mrs. Geo. 

 D. Emerson, were appointed members of the execu- 

 tive committee. The post of secretary was not filled 

 at the meeting, but Miss Lily Cameron Rogers was 

 subsequently induced to accept it. 



The personal influence of Dr. John Parmenter has 

 always maintained Buffalo in the van of the move- 

 ment, and with organization and its attendant division 

 of labor, we look for still higher results than could 

 possibly be achieved by any one individual. 



Buffalo numbers seven or eight hundred members, 

 drawn in large part from the most influential citizens 

 in the community. These are great results to have 

 been achieved by the almost unaided efforts of one 

 man, but in spite of his own success Dr. Parmenter 

 has always gallantly maintained the view that ladies 

 make the best secretaries. 



CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP. 



The Audubon Society, in its desire to associate 

 with it all persons prepared to co-operate in any de- 

 gree for bird protection, formulated three pledges, 

 and ruled that subscription to either one of them 

 should entitle to membership. The object was to 

 provide for the admission of naturalists- and others, 

 anxious to guard against extermination, but who nev- 

 ertheless could not be expected to refrain from adding 

 to scientific collections as opportunities occurred — 

 more especially it was thought undesirable to exclude 

 scientists who are investigating birds' stomachs in the 

 interests of bird protection. 



This liberality has been occasionally abused by 

 girls, who point to the rules, and ask for membership 

 on subscription to the two first pledges, and in one 

 or two instances by boys, who propose to sign the 

 third only. 



It was not thought desirable to alter the rules for a 

 few isolated instances; it was thought sufficient to ad- 

 vise local secretaries to discourage such applications; 

 but with the growth of the Society the inquiries on 

 this subject have become so frequent, involving so 



much correspondence, that it has been thought desir- 

 able to revise the wording of the rules, and prescribe 

 that henceforward no ladies will be admitted to mem- 

 bership who do not subscribe to the third pledge, 

 either absolutely or with the proviso that they will 

 not renew their feathers after those in possession 

 shall be laid aside; and no men who do not subscribe 

 to either the first or second pledges. 



Local secretaries will please be guided by these 

 rules in future. 



By order, C. F. Amery, General Secretary. 



MEMBERSHIP RETURNS. 



The registered membership of the Audubon Society 

 on the 31st of January, 1887, was 19,830, showing an 

 increase during the month of 2,007 registered mem- 

 bers. This increase is given by States in the follow- 

 ing table : 



New York 633 



New Jersey 133 



Massachusetts 190 



* Pennsylvania 266 



Ohio 176 



Illinois 35 



Michigan 44 



Missouri 55 



Rhode Island 19 



Connecticut 24 



New Hampshire 15 



Vermont 27 



Maine 4 



Iowa 14 



Kentucky 4 



Arkansas 13 



Dakota 2 



Kansas 56 



Texas 24 



Colorado 12 



District of Columbia 18 



Georgia 68 



Carolinas i 



Tennessee 3 



Minnesota i 



Louisiana. 3 



Virginia i 



Florida 12 



* In the returns in our February number, Philadelphia was 

 erroneously printed for Pennsylvania. — Ed. 



THE TERNS OF MUSKEGET ISLAND. 



Forest and Stream of recent date contained an ac- 

 count of the efforts made by Mrs. Richard P. White 

 to preserve the terns of Muskeget, which we repro- 

 duce in substapce; 



"From time immemorial Muskeget Island has been 

 a famous breeding place for terns and seagulls. Over 

 its iron shores the herring gull and blackback hover 

 in winter, and sometimes the great white-winged gull, 

 wandering from the ice-laden ocean of the far North, 

 stops here for a little while. But in spring, when the 

 leaden clouds have left the sky, and the smooth sea 

 shines brightly blue under the serene heavens, when 

 the shoals of fish begin to move northward, and the 

 hardy fishermen prepare their nets and push off their 

 boats from the shore, then the terns, joining the ad- 

 vancing army of bird life, come to us from the south, 

 and revisit their summer home at Muskeget. And 

 what thousands of them there are. How they circle 

 and whirl and dart about the island ; or go off in little 

 fishing parties out to sea, or along the shore, or at 



