Our Smith College Audubon Society. 



175 



they often attempt to escape by diving, 

 using their wings for progression under 

 water. They sometimes ahght on the 

 branches of trees, where they walk Hghtly 

 and easily, and we have frequently seen 

 them perch upon the slender pliant willow 

 twigs projecting from newly repaired 

 "beaver houses" in the Missouri River and 

 other Western streams. Audubon says that 

 he has seen them on haystacks, where they 

 seemed to be catching insects. 



The Spotted Sandpiper is a gentle and 

 unsuspicious little bird, and readily answers 

 and moves toward an imitation of its call 

 note. In this way these birds are often 

 lured within shooting distance of boys with 

 guns, who thus kill many of them, but they 

 are too small to be coveted by the grown 

 up gunner, who disdains to shoot at such 

 tiny birds. 



Within a few years past, however, many 

 Spotted Sandpipers have been killed for 

 hat decoration, and their distorted skins 



have adorned the headgear of many good 

 but thoughtless women. 



The Spotted Sandpiper is about seven 

 inches in length, and of this the bill 

 occupies one inch. In color this bird is 

 glossy olive brown above, sometimes with 

 greenish reflections. The feathers of the 

 top of head and neck are marked with dark 

 spots along the shafts of the feathers. 

 Those of the back are faintly barred with 

 wavy black. The quills of the wings are 

 dusky brown, all except the two outer ones 

 being marked with a large oval spot of 

 white on the inner web. Tail feathers like 

 the back, but tipped with white and with a 

 subterminal black bar. A line over the eye 

 and the entire under parts white, thickly 

 dotted with sharp circular black spots on the 

 breast, reminding one of the spots on the 

 breast of a thrush. Bill pale yellow, tipped 

 with black. Feet, flesh color. The young 

 of the year lack the spots below and are 

 generally duller and grayer than the adults. 



OUR SMITH COLLEGE AUDUBON SOCIETY. 



IT may seem a very simple thing to form 

 an Audubon Society, but some ex- 

 tremely perplexing questions arise when 

 you come to the practical work of organiza- 

 tion. 



How many boys or girls care for orni- 

 thology? What can there be about an Au- 

 dubon Society that is picturesque or enter- 

 taining? If it is to have life, meetings 

 must be held; but what can they be about? 

 Shall you read reports on the proselytes 

 the members have made — lists of names 

 often too meagre to receive attention ? Dry 

 bones tied with red tape! Who would come 

 to the meetings ? The Society would come 

 to an end as soon as the birds were tempo- 

 rarily protected by a change of fashion. 



No. People must know and love the 

 birds, or false logic and worldly argument 



will make them indifferent to their destruc- 

 tion. You must interest them in the birds 

 themselves. But how ? By reading prosy 

 descriptions from, ornithological tomes 

 full of measurements of "tarsus," "middle 

 toe," "claw," "bill above," "along gape;" 

 and statistics concerning remiges, culmen, 

 spurious primaries, and the freedom of the 

 "basal joint of middle toe for terminal 

 fourth on outside, for half on inside?" 

 Ordinary boys and girls have no desire to 

 become ornithologists, but are easily inter- 

 ested in out-of-door life. So take them 

 into the fields and let them see how the 

 birds look, what they have to say, how they 

 spend their time, what sort of houses they 

 build, and what are their family secrets. 



When we decided to do this, we deter- 

 mined the success of our future Society, 



