160 Bird - Lore 
absolutely natural surroundings and the ability to forage for themselves, if they 
are to be retained. A fence of poultry-wire six feet high, set close to the 
ground and topped with barbed wire, will do finely as a barrier, if, in addition, 
there is some one watching out with gun or warrant for intruders! 
Who is there in your town that will deed an acre or more of wild land 
either to the local Audubon Society or the State Board of Agriculture for such 
a purpose? Or, if they will not give the land outright, pledge it to this use for 
a term of years? 
Then let the bird-city-of-refuge be named after either a public or a private 
individual associated with the outdoor life of our country, or the special 
district, that the bond of personality may add its influence; for one of the 
things that we most lack in the present generation is the beneficial and con- 
servative influence of association, reasonable tradition, and personal senti- 
ment, three powerful factors in the reign of law and order, whether of the 
community or the home. M. O. W. 
The Mary M. Emery Bird Reserve 
By H, M. BENEDICT 
Associate Professor of Biology, University of Cincinnati 
Now that the movement for protecting song birds, where they still 
remain, is so well under way, the time seems ripe for a concerted effort to 
bring back the birds to those places from which they have been driven. 
A child’s memories should gleam with the beauties of flowers and sky, 
and thrill with the remembered songs of birds. The one who cannot look 
back to a childhood in which birds sang and nested has been denied a birth- 
right. Where the children are, there should the birds be. 
And yet, every step in the building of a city makes it more difficult for 
the birds to remain; and, finally, in the heart of the city, where the little 
children swarm the streets, all but the vulgar Sparrow have vanished. How 
can birds be brought into daily life of those little children of the pavements? 
How can their memories be stored with the winged beauty and joyful song 
of birds? 
To begin the solution of this problem, Mrs. Mary M. Emery, of Cincinnati, 
has purchased a small wooded area, which yet remained undisturbed, in one 
of the residence districts of Cincinnati, built around it a boy-proof, cat-tight 
iron fence, and placed it under the charge of the ornithologist of the biological 
department of the University of Cincinnati, as an actual experiment station. 
The great object in view is to discover the most efficient and practical methods 
for restoring the birds to the cities. The motto in bronze on the entrance 
reads, “Bring Back the Birds to the Cities.” 
The first obvious essential of the city bird-reserve is to make it safe for 
nestlings. We little realize the dangers which confront nestling birds from 
