2o6 



Bird- Lore 



Of course, ignorance of the law is held to be 

 no excuse for breaking it, but this is one of 

 many cases of legal injustice. Various so- 

 cieties have tried posting the game-laws 

 broadcast on trees, fences and in country 

 stores, usually printed in English, occasion- 

 ally in Italian, the most frequent result be- 

 ing that in a few weeks they are either torn 

 down or overshadowed by the latest poster 

 advertising a county fair or a political 

 rally. I am fully convinced that individual 

 effort in this matter will do much more than 

 indiscriminate posting. 



Here in Connecticut we now have a law 

 constituting every man his own constable 

 where trespass on his land is concerned, 

 thus rendering practical the ancient law 

 against general trespass, which was perforce 

 a dead letter. All states do not have this 

 law, but equal results could be attained, as 

 far as bird protection is concerned, if every 

 owner of either a garden plot or an exten- 

 sive farm alike would not only keep their 

 grounds thoroughly posted on the roadside 

 inside of the fence, where to remove the 

 poster would be a trespass in itself, but also 

 scatter the posters through remoter parts of 

 wood lots and private lanes, where they 

 would be seen by those avoiding highway 

 publicity. Then, after this is done, offen- 

 ders may be brought justly to justice. I am 

 convinced that if half a dozen land-owners 

 in every community would do this, a chain 

 could be formed that would soon bind an 

 entire state. 



An Audubon Society may print a thou- 

 sand or two copies of the game-laws on stout 

 muslin and see that they are distributed and 

 tacked up along highways, but if they are 

 pulled down almost immediately they have 

 merely their labor for their pains. If, how- 

 ever, individuals could have these posters 

 on application and take personal interest in 

 their preservation and renewal, the result 

 would be very different. Also, it has been 

 recently suggested by one high in authority, 

 as well as in the knowledge of bird protec- 

 tion, that it may be sometimes possible to 

 persuade a general contractor or section 

 foreman of a railroad to read and emphasize 

 the bird -laws to the gangs of foreigners 

 hey employ. Given a poster printed in 



scholastic Italian, how much does it mean' 

 to those accustomed to a local patois, and 

 when the unfamiliar names of our birds are 

 added, what can Giaomo of the railway 

 ditch make of the thing? 



A few days ago an intelligent woman who 

 has traveled much said to me : " I know 

 that the Italian and Slavs seem lawless and 

 kill birds indiscriminately, but for this we 

 are responsible, not they. In the first place, 

 they are not thoroughly informed, and, in 

 the second, to get out to the woods for 

 amusement is one of the few cheap pleasures 

 this country offers foreigners who come from 

 lands where, if bread is scarcer, amusement 

 is more plentiful. We must teach them, 

 and do It tactfully, for I have this season 

 seen almost a race-riot started by the arrest 

 of an alien for taking shore-birds' eggs from 

 nests in a sand-barren, when the whole 

 outraged attitude of the man showed that he 

 was unconscious of wrongdoing." 



Truly It is not enough to make the laws, 

 or to enforce them. The illiterate foreign 

 public are our charge for instruction in this, 

 as in the matter of general education; and,, 

 while we are sending out free libraries to 

 interest school children In the birds them- 

 selves, it would be well — since posters are 

 often forbidden in school buildings — to send 

 to each school teacher who circulates a librarj^ 

 a pocket copy of the Bird Laws, with a re- 

 quest to read the same intelligently to her 

 class. In our winter meditations and heart- 

 felt dreams of what we will do for bird 

 protection "when the nesting season opens," 

 let us remember that for the protectionist 

 there Is no closed season when he has to thresh 

 out the problem of informing the stranger 

 within his country's gates. — M. O. W. 



Reports of Societies 



Report of the Audubon Society of the 

 District of Columbia for 1903 



This society was organized for the study 

 and protection of birds. Under the heading 

 of study, the work accomplished has been 

 through lectures, meetings for members, 

 held ^monthly, field meetings, and classes^ 

 for the instruction of teachers, conducted by 



