370 Bird -Lore 



the protection of non-game birds. This, with other Hterature, is sent to all 

 new members and others upon receipt of twenty-five cents. 



The Secretary once more had the pleasure of attending the National 

 Conservation Congress as a delegate from the federated clubs. The time 

 allotted to the report of the Audubon Society was limited, and the message 

 given necessarily brief. 



Because of the yearly loss to our agricultural products, through the depre- 

 dations of insects, it is essential that the study of bird protection be taken up 

 in earnest. 



Valuable service has been rendered to our Society by John R. Spurrell, 

 President of the local Society at Wall Lake, who is keeping in touch with 

 legislation at Des Moines, so that existing laws for the protection of bird life 

 may not be repealed or adversely amended. 



We are endeavoring to interest the State Game Warden, George W. Lin- 

 coln, of Cedar Rapids, in the enforcement of laws to protect non-game birds 

 of Iowa. These laws are still openly violated by women of fashion, who wear 

 bird plumage, and by milliners, who persist in selling this ornamentation; 

 both classes are equally guilty. It should be generally understood that, with 

 few exceptions, all non-game birds are protected by law. 



The Iowa Audubon Society was organized at Keokuk in 1898, and feder- 

 ated with Iowa Women's Clubs in May, 1909. — Jane Parrott, Secretary. 



Kansas. — Drastic changes in the game laws of Kansas were made by the 

 Legislature of 1911. The protection of non-game birds has been achieved, 

 in effect, without the adoption of the model Audubon Society law, modified 

 to meet local conditions, which was fathered by this Society through two 

 Legislatures. This was brought about largely by a better understanding of 

 the subject, as a result of much educational work during the previous two 

 years, superbly reinforced by the immense prestige of L. L. Dyche, Professor 

 of Natural History in Kansas University and acting Game Warden. We find 

 that 299 species of birds perform a beneficent economic service to the people 

 of Kansas; a very large proportion of this number are non-game birds that 

 were without protection under the old laws, and the efforts of this Society were 

 centered in legislative protection to them, rather than in changes in the game- 

 bird phases. Of the total number of 355 species that visit this state, there are 

 really but three species that are more destructive than useful; hence, the 

 importance of protection to outlawed birds, about which the old game laws 

 were absolutely silent. At Professor Dyche's suggestion, the wording was 

 changed to include the useful species. While there is a disposition on the part 

 of some hunters to question the wisdom of the amended laws as regards game 

 birds, and to criticise the Game Warden's opinions of good and bad birds, and 

 fish, it is the general opinion of those familiar with the subject of conserva- 

 tion of the natural resources of Kansas that Governor Stubbs' judgment was 



