The Audubon Societies 



79 



I 



who stared in wonder at the strange 

 creatures that he drew forth and held up 

 for their inspection. 



The associations of Audubon Park thus 

 gave Mr. Grinnell an interest in birds and 

 their ways which grew with his growth, 

 and it cannot be doubted that it was the 

 influence of these surroundings which, 

 years afterward, led him to name the bird- 

 protective society which he founded "The 

 Audubon Society." 



After graduation from Yale, in 1870 

 Mr. Grinnell went to the then Far West 

 as one of a scientific expedition, headed by 

 the great paleontologist, Professor O. C. 

 Marsh, to collect vertebrate fossils, and a 

 little later he went to New Haven, Con- 

 necticut, to become an assistant to Pro- 

 fessor Marsh in the Peabody Museum 

 of Yale, where he worked for years on 

 vertebrate fossils. 



In 1879, his health broke down, and 

 it became necessary to seek a change of 

 work. He was chosen President of the 

 Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 

 where, until a few months, he has had his 

 headquarters. His connection with the 

 paper began in 1876, as natural history 

 editor. During nearly thirty-five years, 

 therefore, he has been working in the 

 direction of protecting wild life — at first 

 game birds and mammals, and, when the 

 fashion of wearing plumage began to in- 

 crease in 1884 and 1885, in the protection 

 also of song and insectivorous birds. 



The idea of the Audubon Society 

 orginated with Mr. Grinnell who wrote an 

 editorial published in "Forest and 

 Stream" of February 11, 1886, in which 

 was announced the formation of "an asso- 

 ciation for the protection of wild birds 

 and their eggs, which shall be called the 

 Audubon Society. Its membership to be 

 free to every one who is willing to lend a 

 helping hand in forwarding the objects 

 for which it is formed. These objects shall 

 be to prevent, so far as possible, (i) the 

 killing of any wild birds not used for 

 food; (2) the destruction of nests or 

 eggs of any wild bird, and (3) the wearing 

 of feathers as ornaments or trimming for 

 dress." 



For a number of years previous, the 

 business of collecting small birds and 

 plume-birds as ornaments for women's 

 dress had been going on in a small way, 

 but it was not until 1885 that the danger 

 to bird life assumed proportions which 

 were actually alarming. 



As newspaper man, member of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, and one 

 who for years had kept well in touch with 

 wild life all over the United States, Mr. 

 Grinnell had clear ideas as to the dangers 

 threatened to the country by this whole- 

 sale destruction of bird life. On the other 

 hand, it was difficult to determine how 

 most effectively to combat the growing 

 fashion of using plumage for decorative 

 purposes. It was obvious that resolutions 

 by scientific societies would accomplish 

 very little, partly because they would 

 reach a very small public, and more 

 particularly because the average person 

 among the 55,000,000 then in the United 

 States felt not the slightest interest in 

 what scientific associations resolved, or 

 did not resolve. It seemed, therefore, 

 that the only means of attacking the ever- 

 growing evil was (i) to appeal directly to 

 the women, and (2), slower but more 

 effective, to interest the children in the 

 birds, and to teach them to see the beauty 

 and charm of bird life, as well as the 

 enormous services which birds perform 

 for man. 



From the very beginning, the move- 

 ment received the warm approval of the 

 press and of the best people in the coun- 

 try. Literature was distributed in great 

 quantities by the Forest and Stream 

 Publishing Company, and the movement 

 soon became widely known. Local 

 secretaries were established in town after 

 town all over the land. The members of 

 the bird-preservation committee of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union lent 

 powerful aid. Such eminent citizens as 

 Henry Ward Beecher, John G. Whittier, 

 John Burroughs, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 

 Bishop Potter, and a multitude of others 

 came forward with warm commendations 

 of the purposes and plans of the Society. 

 In the course of two or three years the 



