State Audubon Reports 323 



as the LaRue Holmes Nature Lovers' League Bird Refuge, which has recently, 

 through the kind agency referred to, been conveyed to League ownership. 



The island is a level, marshy expanse, lying near Stone Harbor, Cape 

 May county, where the Gulls have bred for centuries, and whence they would 

 eventually be driven were no means taken for their protection. 



The island was formerly the scene of merciless slaughter of Gulls to meet 

 the cruel demand of women for their plumage; thousands being slain, and but 

 a few hundred remaining. Had not the National Audubon Society sprung to the 

 rescue, extermination had completed its devastating work; but competent warden 

 service has resulted in an increase of the Gull colony now numbering from 1,200 

 to 1,500. The La Rue Holmes Nature Lovers' League now takes up the respons- 

 ibility of the warden service. 



The Gulls are the scavengers of the coast, necessary to healthful conditions 

 along the shore. They are life-savers, giving warning to seamen, to whom lights 

 and fog-horns are lost in the obscurity and the uproar of storms; the wings of 

 the Gull go through fogs, and give warnings that land is near. The Gull, sweeping 

 ever across the waters, and cradled at night upon the sea, is an embodiment of 

 poetry, as well as an asset in utility, which New Jersey cannot afford to lose. 



The League membership roll has now increased to thousands, distributed 

 through thirty-six chapters. Sixty thousand bird pictures, nearly eight thousand 

 booklets, leaflets and pamphlets, and a number of thousand packages of garden 

 seeds have been distributed since giving our last report. 



Of essays on natural history subjects, submitted to the Committee, 140 

 were sent for pubHcation to Newark and other local papers. 



Interest in the League movement is deepening. The most encouraging 

 reports reach us of the changed attitude toward humble life, among children, 

 through League influence. Where we work there stands no material building, 

 but the fabric we are fashioning is built into human character. He who catches 

 the inspiration to find joy in creating happiness for another thereby brings into 

 his own life one of the elements of nobility and strength. — Georgiana Klingle 

 Holmes, General Secretary. 



North Carolina. — The Audubon work in North Carolina, the past year, has 

 been conducted along the same general lines of activity as in previous years. 

 The educational endeavor has been pushed as heretofore. Twenty-one junior 

 secretaries have charge of local organizations consisting chiefly of children who 

 are doing work in bird study. One of these classes contains over one hundred 

 and sixty members. Each secretary is supplied with " Bird-Lore" and a library 

 consisting of ten or fifteen volumes of bird and general-nature books. The pupils 

 are all furnished with Audubon Mockingbird buttons and the Leaflets issued by 

 the National Association. Thousands of pages of literature have also been mailed 

 to other teachers in schools of all grades. The Secretary has given a number of 

 public lectures before representative gatherings in the state. A force of exactly 



