412 Bird -Lore 



tracks of a moose, now roaming these wilds in security, were seen within a 

 mile of a popular public camp. A colony of beaver on the stream between 

 Elbow and Grassy Ponds had increased. Through various influences, among 

 which the work of the Audubon Society for the past twenty years has been a 

 part, there is now a widespread interest in the study of natural history, and 

 especially birds and their protection, throughout the state. During the year a 

 new and active bird club has been organized in the city of Gardiner. Two of 

 the older clubs, the Stanton Bird Club of Lewiston and Auburn, and the 

 Cumberland County Audubon Society of Portland have been incorporated for 

 the purpose of more fully carrying on their work. The well-organized bird 

 clubs and Audubon Societies of the state, of which there are no less than seven, 

 have all been active, as will be seen by their several reports. It is with great 

 satisfaction that I am able to announce that between these local clubs there 

 exists the utmost feeling of good will and desire for cooperation. 



Besides these clubs, many other organizations within the church, literary 

 clubs, and the organizations for young people, in carrying out their annual 

 programs desire talks on various natural history subjects, and especially on 

 birds. These demands I have met on many occasions, and now the various 

 clubs are doing much more by furnishing trained students from their own 

 membership to carry on this phase of the work. Governor Baxter, who in 

 192 1 prolcaimed a state-wide bird-day, calling especially upon the teachers of 

 the public schools to observe the day with appropriate exercises, repeated the 

 custom this year, and it is safe to say that there was hardly a school in the 

 entire state but carried out the purposes of the proclamation to the best of its 

 ability. On this day hundreds of thousands of children answered this great 

 muster-call eagerly, to listen to exercises and exhibit their own work for a 

 better knowledge of birds and their usefulness to man. If much has been 

 accomplished since the zeal of William Butcher and Abbott Thayer were the 

 guiding stars of this great Association, it but reminds us forcefully of our 

 greater responsibilities to a great and awakening public. 



REPORT OF EUGENE SWOPE, FIELD AGENT FOR OHIO 



Early in 191 5, some of the Ohio conservationists and agriculturists were 

 instrumental in having the Bob-white legally classed with all protected birds 

 of the state. Ohio bird-census takers, reporting Christmas observations to 

 Bird-Lore six weeks prior to the enactment of this law, do not mention even 

 one Bob-white in their lists. Now it may be only a meaningless coincident, but 

 every Ohio Christmas census since 1914 mentions many Bob-whites. It would 

 seem that the birds must be more numerous since they are not hunted. It is 

 also likely that they are less shy and census-takers find them in the open, when 

 formerly hunting dogs were necessary to get them out. In every part of the 

 state where conditions are at all suited to the Bob-white's welfare, observing 



