40 



Bird -Lore 



Society will increase and that it will ac- 

 complish something in the important work 

 of protecting our native birds. 



Mrs. F. K. Barrows, Secretary. 

 October 21, 1902. 



Annual Report of the Connecticut 

 Sodiety 



At the fourth annual meeting of the 

 Connecticut Audubon Society, held in 

 Stamford, on May 25, 1901, Mr. C. D. 

 Hine, Secretary of the State Board of Edu- 

 cation, addressed the audience on the educa- 

 tional value of bird-study. Following out 

 the thought given us by Mr. Hine, at this 

 meeting, the Executive Committee have 

 worked together on educational lines during 

 the past year, seeking to have the children 

 in the schools taught the high value of 

 nature- and bird-study, leading them to the 

 thoughts of high minds, training them in 

 right thinking, and bringing them to right 

 impulse of doing, in the protection of birds, 

 and in general humanity. 



The Society now distributes to schools 

 and village libraries, through the Board of 

 Education, eighteen libraries of books on 

 birds and nature, thirty-eight sets of bird 

 charts, and three illustrated lectures. 



The Board of Education asks us for 100 

 libraries, and a chart for every public school 

 in the state, saying that all could be well 

 used. It is our wish this year to raise 

 money to purchase these books and charts. 

 During the past seventeen months the Ex- 

 ecutive Committee have held thirteen meet- 

 ings to transact the business of the Society. 

 The membership of the Society has been 

 increased by ten adult members, fifteen 

 teachers, 690 junior members, and 3,637 

 associate members, — a total of 4,352. The 

 associate members are children who do not 

 pay a fee and do not receive a certificate, 

 but who sign a pledge to protect birds, and 

 who receive an Audubon button. You will 

 notice that the majority of the new members 

 are children, and you will then see the re- 

 sult of the work which has been done in 

 schools by the teachers, and through our 

 local secretaries. We have local secretaries 

 in thirty-seven towns in the state. Reports 



have been received from twenty of them, 

 and they tell of such great interest in this 

 work among the children, and such a desire 

 to keep the bird charts permanently in 

 the schools. 



Quoting from some of these reports, one 

 says, "The intelligence in regard to birds 

 grows each year, and even the Crow has his 

 friends." From Madison, Conn., we hear 

 that " interest in bird song has been kept 

 up and increased so much that, as regards 

 work in the schools, there are almost literally 

 no more worlds to conquer ; our teachers 

 all being members of the Audubon Seciety 

 and enthusiastic bird students, the efforts of 

 the local secretary are not required to arouse 

 interest among the young people. She is, 

 however, sure of a welcome and an eager 

 response when she drops in at some district 

 school to ask a few questions about nests 

 and rare feathered visitors. In most of the 

 schools, the smallest child knows from fifty 

 to one hundred birds, while not the roughest 

 boy in Madison now dreams of molesting a 

 nest of eggs or young ; with the result that 

 never before has our village been so thronged 

 with tuneful neighbors. The birds may be 

 said to have conquered Madison." 



In Stamford the local secretary presented 

 two libraries to the different schools. She 

 says: "Principal, teachers and scholars alike 

 forward in every way Audubon work by 

 their enthusiasm and earnestness, the result 

 being 1,476 new junior or associate mem- 

 bers." Our Hartford secretary says, "If 

 people only knew what a pleasure it is to 

 talk to the enthusiastic little children, 

 more would go to work in the public 

 schools. The path is all smoothed for 

 us by the very charming principals and 

 teachers ; and the children themselves do 

 half the talking, and would do it all, if 

 one did not want a little say one's self." 



Added to this educational work, the 

 Society has posted the state game laws in 

 forty towns, in all express offices, and in 

 one hundred and twenty-six summer hotels, 

 and is now contemplating putting them in 

 saloons, thinking that some would see them 

 in that way who would not perhaps notice 

 them elsewhere. Respectfully submitted, 

 Helen W. Glover, Secretary. 



