Reports of Field Agents 419 



activity. During the school year there were organized 486 classes, with a 

 membership of 13,156, which is the largest yearly record thus far attained for 

 the state. Your agent visited many schools during the year and gave 116 talks 

 to 20,000 children. 



Several hundred letters sent out to teachers and superintendents of schools, 

 and a questionnaire mailed to the latter, brought most gratifying results, show- 

 ing marked interest in and a willingness to cooperate with the Audubon work. 

 The State Board of Education distributed many of our announcements and 

 Meadowlark leaflets, and the Secretary wrote : "I wish we might see an Audubon 

 Society in every school." The purchase of bird books, charts, and extra leaf- 

 lets by many classes, and the following extracts from letters, indicate the 

 increasing interest in bird-study. 



One teacher wrote: "My children have become so enthusiastic over form- 

 ing a Junior Audubon Class that already we have 43 members and other clubs 

 are being formed in the school." Another: "So many of the children outside 

 of my room wanted an Audubon Society that the principal has consented to 

 take them. I felt I could not handle eighty children in a bird-walk, so we are 

 going to work together with them. We have been on two bird-walks already." 

 A small country school reported: "We are now a 100 per cent Junior Audubon 

 Class. We have weekly meetings and love our Club." 



The Neighborhood Nature Club of Westport ably assisted in organizing 

 Junior Classes in their schools. Committees were appointed to precede me in 

 visits to the schools to tell the pupils of our work. The results were splendid, 

 for over half of the students in the grammar grades became members. 



Arbor Day I spoke at the exercises of one of the Stratford Schools. As I 

 stood before the audience, many Junior members were discovered, as they 

 proudly pointed to their Audubon buttons. While talking to a class in one of 

 the New Haven schools, the pupils were delighted when I spied their pet 

 Robin on her nest in a nearby tree. For many it was their first opportunity to 

 watch a bird build a nest. In another school I found the teachers taking their 

 children out during the spring migration to see the Warblers that were busy at 

 work among the trees, and several species were identified. 



My summer vacation, spent in Buck Hill Falls, Pa., gave me an opportunity 

 to do a bit for the Audubon cause. The Nature Club there distributed our 

 leaflets to the children of the Club, who represented several different states, 

 and all were eager to start Junior Classes in their home schools. The Club 

 invited me to assist them in preparing an exhibit for the Barrett Township 

 fair which is the event of the season at Buck Hill. Our booth proved popular 

 and many visitors stopped to read the literature that we offered them. Then 

 followed an invitation to speak to the teachers of the township, and all expressed 

 wilHngness to advance our cause for bird-protection. 



