336 Bird - Lore 



of requests for their loan received from other parts of the state had to be denied. 

 As the Milwaukee institution has now provided itself with a collection of bird 

 slides of its own, this difficulty of meeting other requests need not occur in the 

 future. 



At the 1909 session of the state legislature, several measures proposing to 

 again permit the hunting of wild Ducks during a limited term in the spring of 

 each year were introduced. These bills were supported by a very large num- 

 ber of hunters and misguided citizens, and, as many of the legislators were 

 known to favor their passage, the Wisconsin Audubon Society, prominent edu- 

 cators, and the better class of sportsmen, were compelled to concentrate every 

 energy in defeating their vicious purpose. This was finally accomplished, but 

 only by a very narrow margin. The first of these obnoxious bills was killed 

 in the state assembly, on April 22, by a vote of forty to forty-six. The remaining 

 bills died natural deaths, in consequence. The adoption of measures forbidding 

 spring shooting in other states will do much to prevent the futu.e resurrection 

 of spring-shooting measures in our own. The Society desires at this .ime to ex- 

 press its grateful thanks to Speaker L. H. Bancroft, Assemblyman C. H. Dorner, 

 and several other legislators, who proved themselves, at this tr\ing moment, 

 stout champions of the Audubon movement for bird preservation. 



The local outdoor bird-study classes were this year conducted by Mr. Fiederick 

 Brandenburg, an experienced ornithologist, who very generously ofifered his ser- 

 vices. 



Various members of the Society have given talks and lectures during the year 

 before public school audiences, teachers' institutes and women's clubs, vfith 

 promising results. As usual, a large number of bird Leaflets have heen dis- 

 tributed to the state public libraries through the courtesy of the Wisconsin 

 Free Library Commission, and to other educational institutions by the Society 

 itself. If its income were larger, a greater number of the latter might be eached. 

 Such literature and reports as it has received from other state societies has been 

 placed in the care of the University library. The subscriptions to By-the Way- 

 side, the official organ of the Society, have increased in number. Under present 

 arrangements, every member will receive the monthly issues of this valuable 

 and instructive publication withou; additional charge. 



The eleventh annual meeting of the Society was held in the lecture hall of 

 the Madison Public Library on Saturday, June 5. — C. E. Brown, Secretary. 



