The Audubon Societies 



i8i 



the state are prohibited. The sale of these 

 birds is prohibited at all times." 



That these laws are the outcome of a 

 popular reaction there is no doubt any 

 more than that the reaction was started by 

 the various protective associations, both Fed- 

 eral and State, chief among which stand 

 the protective committee of the A. O. U., 

 the League of American Sportsmen and 

 the State Audubon Societies. To gain an 

 adequate idea of the number and scope of 

 the various state and local societies formed 

 for bird and game protection, we wish 

 every one would read the list, p. 664-671, 

 in the "Year Book" of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1900. 



Everywhere in these laws is the strength 

 of cooperation visible, a cooperation that 

 should be also applied to the work of the 

 Audubon Societies more especially in rela- 

 tion to their published material than in 

 their individual methods, which must neces- 

 sarily be local and specialized. — M. O. W. 



SECOND ANNUAL AUDUBON 

 CONFERENCE 



The Second Annual Conference of the 

 Audubon Societies will convene at the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York City, November 14, 1901, under the 

 auspices of the Audubon Society of New 

 York State, which extends to the members 

 of all Audubon Societies a cordial invitation 

 to attend the public meeting of the Societies 

 on the afternoon of the day above named. 



REPORT OF CONNECTICUT SOCIETY 



{Presented at the Fourth Annual Meeting, held at Stam- 

 ford, May 25, igoi) 



During the past year the Executive Com- 

 mittee has held nine meetings to transact 

 the business of the Society. 



Part of our work has been the purchase 

 of more books for our traveling libraries, to 

 which we have added four sets of eleven 

 books each. We are much encouraged by 

 the reports of the educational work these 

 libraries are doing in the schools and vil- 

 lages where they are circulated. 



We have also purchased from the Massa- 

 chusetts Audubon Society sets of colored 

 bird charts, which show the common birds 



of New England. These charts we send to 

 our local secretaries for their use in schools 

 or bird classes, or to the schools themselves. 

 We have felt much encouraged by the spe- 

 cial interest which our State Board of Edu- 

 cation has shown in our work through its 

 secretary, Mr. C. D. Hine. It now has 

 charge of our lecture outfits, our trav- 

 eling libraries and most of our charts, and 

 our desire is to purchase more of these 

 materials which they utilize so well, as we 

 think the Board of Education can extend 

 this branch of work better than we can. 



Our membership this year has been in- 

 creased by 4 sustaining members, 45 regular 

 members, 46 teachers, 828 junior members 

 and 642 associate members, making a total 

 of 1,565 new members. I have had most 

 interesting reports from twenty-three of our 

 local secretaries, showing what excellent 

 work they are doing in the towns of Nor- 

 walk, Stamford, South Woodstock, Middle- 

 town, Norwich, North Woodbury, Water- 

 town, Granby, Scotland, New Canaan, 

 Enfield, Bristol, Stratford, Bridgeport, 

 Wethersfield, New Milford, Redding, 

 Haddam, Madison, Willimantic, Hartford, 

 Westport and Woodbridge. 



The local secretaries form bird classes, or 

 speak to the children in the schools and 

 interest them in bird protection, and, as 

 one wrote to me, "call the children's atten- 

 tion to the birds," as often people live all 

 their lives among birds and hardly see them 

 or hear them, because no one has "called 

 their attention" to them, and the children 

 continue thoughtlessly to stone birds and 

 rob their nests, because no one has spoken a 

 few simple words that will touch their hearts. 



Another one writes: The children have 

 had their eyes opened at last, and they are 

 alive to the fact that it pays to protect the 

 birds. In another school the children made 

 a chart of their own from sets of colored birds 

 sent out by some insurance company as an 

 advertisement, and being their own work, 

 this chart is particularly enjoyable to them. 



One town, Madison, had six sets of our 

 bird charts at one time. In some towns a bird 

 calendar is kept, giving the date of seeing the 

 bird, its name, name of observer and place. 



