The Audubon Societies 311 



calling with much the same frequency that they did before their sudden 

 decrease. Laughing Gulls were seen along the shores of Rhode Island in early 

 June, while the Prairie Warbler was recorded not far inshore. Such species as 

 these, whose numbers or distribution are varying, are singled out simply as 

 interesting examples of beneficial species which show a rapid increase or 

 decrease, according to favorable or unfavorable conditions. 



Is it not possible to take up careful limited area studies more generally, not 

 only in schools but also in clubs and communities, so that town by town, 

 county by county and state by state, we shall have a continuous link of thorough 

 investigation? In order to aid this movement. State Audubon Societies would 

 do well to get into closer touch with each Junior Audubon Society within their 

 limits. Not infrequently, appeals come to the School Department for informa- 

 tion as to how and where to get material, lectures, and organized assistance in 

 forming a bird club or Junior Audubon Society. Why not send a circular of 

 information to each school in the state from the head office of the State Audu- 

 bon Society and thus establish, not only acquaintance but a working relation, 

 between such isolated centers of interest? The 'endless chain' idea might well 

 be applied to bird-study and bird-conservation. — A. H. W. 



JUNIOR AUDUBON WORK 



For Teachers and Pupils 



Exercise XL: Correlated with Music, Basket-making, and English. 

 Summer Bird Music. Part III 



The season has come when most people fail to take the keen interest in 

 bird-study which they do in spring or even during June, yet there is very much 

 to see and to hear throughout July and August, and those who really wish 

 to become thorough students of bird-life should not neglect midsummer 

 observations. 



From any single vantage-point a list of twenty or thirty species may be 

 listed, provided the locality is a favorable one. Should one do no more than to 

 follow these thirty or less species, a great deal could be learned about their 

 daily activities, which would throw light on the habits and movements of many 

 other species. The following random list of birds seen or heard from a piazza 

 on a rainy July morning illustrates the value of hot-weather bird-study. The 

 environment of the locality was possibly more than ordinarily favorable, since 

 it combined a salt-water inlet with a somewhat shaded roadside bordering on a 

 thin fringe of woodland. One or two old apple trees, several large locusts, a 

 few cherry trees, cultivated once, perhaps, but now run wild, shrubs and road- 

 side weeds made up in general the vegetation. One large locust alone offered 

 sufficient opportunity for observation. On its bark, the White-breasted Nut- 

 hatch and Downy Woodpecker and the smaller Black-and-white Creeper were 



