State Audubon Reports 333 



Texas. — Following legislative work last winter, beginning about the middle 

 of January and ending in May, which was partially successful, the Texas Audu- 

 bon Society has maintained two lecturers in the field, one being the Secretary, 

 and has very nearly covered the state so far as cities and towns of from 5,000 to 

 10,000 population are concerned. We have also, during the present year, lectured 

 in five of the cities of over 20,000 population, before large audiences, in the latter 

 case invariably using the stereopticon and slides. 



The Texas Audubon Society beheves that it has made a strong and lasting 

 impression upon this state in favor of the preservation of the wild birds and ani- 

 mals of the fields and forests. We have also assisted the Fish Commissioner in 

 his duties, and have protected the streams, to a considerable extent, from those 

 who take fish by unlawful methods. We have encouraged the creation of arti- 

 ficial lakes, and the distribution of improved fish, supplied from the hatcheries 

 of the United States Government. We have cooperated with the State Warden 

 Department, and have succeeded in procuring about twenty convictions for vio- 

 lations of the Bird and Game Law. 



The Secretary of the Texas Audubon Society is convinced that the most 

 effective work that has been done in promoting interest in bird and game pro- 

 tection has been lectiires delivered before the farmers' and teachers' institutes 

 and the boys' corn clubs of the state. Those bodies constitute what might be called 

 "ready-made audiences," and, whenever they meet, an Audubon man is heartily 

 welcomed, and accorded a place on the program with liberty to consume whatever 

 time he thinks proper in convening his message to those present, who always 

 show the deepest interest and ask many questions. The Texas Audubon Society 

 assumed some of the duties of the forest service, and labored in the prevention 

 of unnecessary destruction of trees by lumbermen and by fires. A large mass 

 of literature, suppHed by the federal forest ser^'ice, was circulated along with the 

 Audubon literatiire and distributed on lecture occasions. 



The last legislature, while passing a hcense clause, did so in the fashion of a 

 button with a string on it. It was pro\dded that no license should be required 

 for gunning in the gunner's residence county and in the coimties adjacent to 

 his residence county. In very many cases, this leaves unhcensed gunners the 

 privilege of districts larger than some of the smaller states of the Union, and the 

 exemption defeated one of the chief purposes of our advocacy of the gun Ucense, 

 for it left in the fields the hordes of cheap-gun ahens and lower classes, who shoot 

 indiscriminately and are the chief destroyers of wild hfe wherever it can be fovmd. 

 A uniform gun license would have eliminated not less than 25,000 gunners of this 

 state who would never pay any license at all, and would be subject to arrest and 

 imprisonment when found taking birds or game at any season. 



We are now working hard to get into better shape before the next legislatm"e, 

 and we hope to at length accomplish our purpose, feeling certain that, if we can 

 accomplish all we have undertaken, the birds and game of Texas will be pre- 

 served for future generations. — M. B. Da\t:s, Secretary. 



