The Audubon Societies 



451 



to the permanent Endowment Fund. 

 No bequests were received during the 

 year, although the Association was made 

 the residuary legatee by the will of Edwin 



Reynolds of Providence, R. I. We are 

 informed, however, that there will prob- 

 ably be no residuary estate after the 

 specific legacies have been paid. 



THE COMING YEAR 



The bird-study and bird-protective 

 organizations of this country occupy a 

 strong place in the hearts and minds of 

 the people. Their practical value is 

 demonstrated in the growing crops of a 

 million farms, and the flowers and vege- 

 tables of ten million gardens. In the 

 great national struggle through which we 

 have been passing, as Dr. Swope says, 

 "The pro-Ally birds have valiantly 

 fought the pro-Hun insects." 



Bigger crops mean more food for insects, 

 and more food for insects means more 

 insects, and more insects mean the need 

 for more birds, and to have more birds 

 there is a need for more bird-students 

 and bird-protectors and for those engaged 

 in propaganda for bird-protection. 



One of the most unpopular words in the 

 English language is duty. When a man 

 says he does a thing from the standpoint 

 of duty there is an implied intimation that 

 he is not doing it for pleasure. Happy 

 is the man or woman who can get pleasure 

 and a sense of duty performed both out of 

 the same activity. A well-organized 

 Audubon Society or Bird Club that is 

 doing effective work is not only discharg- 

 ing a solemn duty to the less enlightened 

 part of a community, but is also doing 

 work that its members enjoy. A well- 

 known writer once said of Ambassador 

 Page that he was a man who, "Sang at 

 his work." I have known few bird- 

 students concerning whom the same 

 might not be said. 



That good-fellowship is developed by 

 association with others of like tempera- 

 ment has long been recognized, and the 

 getting together of members of bird- 

 protective societies is one of the most vital 

 ways of stimulating a deeper love for the 

 subject of their mutual interest. 



I have just been impressed anew with 



this fact as a result of a visit from W. A. 

 Eliot, who is leaving for France to engage 

 in war-work. Mr. Eliot has for two years 

 been chairman of the Educational Com- 

 mittee of the Oregon Audubon Society. 

 His account of the method by which they 

 have aroused interest in bird-study in 

 Portland should stimulate others to similar 

 measures. 



Two years ago they engaged the use of 

 a room in the Y. M. C. A. building, to 

 which they invited members of the 

 Audubon Society and others to attend bi- 

 weekly meetings. During the first year 

 the attendance rarely reached over about 

 15, and sometimes not a third of this 

 number. The next year they started in by 

 holding their meetings every Saturday 

 night and ran a column in the local paper 

 every Friday afternoon. They secured a 

 Balopticon by means of which they could 

 throw pictures on the screen, either from 

 slides or from photographs. The attend- 

 ance at once began to increase, and it 

 was soon necessary to move to a larger 

 hall. During last winter, and until late 

 in June, the hall, seating 250, was packed 

 every Saturday night by the people who 

 came to hear and learn about birds and 

 take part in the discussions that followed. 



As a result, there is in Portland and the 

 surrounding country today a very wide- 

 spread interest in bird-study and bird- 

 protection. If it were possible to address 

 in one audience the officers of all the 

 Audubon Societies and Bird Clubs of the 

 country, I should certainly insist strongly 

 for the consideration of two suggestions to 

 be borne in mind during the coming year: 

 First, the great economic importance of 

 keeping the organization going, and, 

 second, the great pleasure and profit to be 

 derived by frequent gatherings of the 

 members and their friends. 



