I6 



A Review. 



members felt warranted in giving time and 

 knowledge freely, and in suggesting meas- 

 ur-es, but for the circulation of their sug- 

 gestions to the general public, they appealed 

 to philanthropists, societies and individuals. 

 The papers on this subject read before the 

 A. O. U. were of great interest, and were 

 published as a supplement to Science. But 

 it was reserved for Dr. Grinnell to take 

 up the matter from the practical stand- 

 point. Again it was not easy to calculate 

 what it would cost to set on foot a popular 

 movement for the protection of our birds. 

 Most of the warmest friends of the move- 

 ment held such exaggerated views of what 

 it would cost, that all shrank from commit- 

 ting themselves to any share of the respons- 

 ibility. To the business managers of the 

 Forest and Sfrea?n it looked less formidable. 

 They could estimate costs, and if necessary 

 regulate them. They could use their own 

 paper to scatter the seeds of the movement 

 in every State of the Union ; it was a move- 

 ment calculated to secure the co-operation 

 of the press ; and seeing one of their own 

 colleagues so anxious to set it afloat, they 

 made the necessary appropriation. On 

 the 13th of February, 1886, the Audubon 

 Society was founded by Forest and Stream, 

 and a great number of the leading people 

 of the country were called on to express 

 their sentiments on the subject, or to aid 

 the movement with their hearty co-opera- 

 tion. 



The first steps were naturally slow. Cir- 

 culars were sent flying all over the country, 

 and almost all the newspapers responded 

 cordially tf) the invitation to help make 

 the movement known. On April 19 the first 

 supply of membership certificates was re- 

 ceived from the printer, and by May 1st fif- 

 teen hundred of them had been issued. 

 From that date to this present, every day's 

 mail has brought applications for member- 

 ship, until at the close of the year, and 

 really only ten months after its foundation, 

 the Society has a membership of twenty 



thou.sand. With the Audubon Magazink 

 to add to the impetus of the movement, 

 there is every indication that the Society 

 will go on prospering and increasing in 

 numbers, until it shall reach far into the 

 hundreds of thousands. It was incorpor- 

 ated under the laws of the State of New 

 York, on August 6, 1886. 



The correspondence of the year has been 

 very interesting. Many of the more active 

 lady members who formerly wore feathers, 

 simply because it was the fashion, were quite 

 shocked when they learned from the circu- 

 lars of the Audubon Society what a fearful 

 sacrifice of bird life was entailed, and how 

 very serious were the future consequences 

 involved; and the last few months have given 

 abundant evidence of the widespread influ- 

 ence of the movement. 



It would be hard to say whether boys or 

 girls have behaved most generously in the 

 matter. To both sexes membership in the 

 Audubon Society involves some self-denial 

 for conscience sake, and they have both re- 

 sponded in a manner to maintain the high 

 character of the race and its readiness to 

 place principle above everything. 



It was intended to make the Audubon 

 movement a national one, but it has out- 

 grown the conception of its promoters and 

 become a continental one. 



From across the border our Canadian 

 cousins have hailed the work with the warm- 

 est expressions of sympathy, and among 

 them, too, we have a large and growing 

 membership anxious to co-operate with us 

 to preserve everything that tends to make 

 this great continent dear to all the dwellers 

 on its soil. 



The movement appeals so strongly to all 

 intelligent people on economic and humane 

 grounds that it can scarcely fail of accom- 

 plishing its objects. These are the educa- 

 tion of our whole people to an understand- 

 ing of the usefulness of the birds and the 

 folly of j)ermitting their wholesale destruc- 

 tion. 



