THE NEW JERSEY AUDUBON 

 SOCIETY. 



By Beecher S. Bowdish, Secretary 



To the Somerset Hills Bird Club the New Jersey 

 Audubon Society sends greetings. We rejoice in the 

 formation and prosperity of all such organizations, 

 because they contribute materially to the encourage- 

 ment of the study of bird life and a more general 

 appreciation of the economic and esthetic value of 

 birds. 



The Audubon Society was organized and incorpor- 

 ated in December, 1911, to take the place of the Au- 

 dubon Society of the State of New Jersey and to vig- 

 orously prosecute the work of bird protection and en- 

 couragement throughout the State. It now has a 

 total membership of more than twenty thousand, of 

 which more than one thousand are adult members. 



The key-note of the Society's work is education. 

 We cannot believe that the destruction of such a val- 

 uable natural asset of the State as its bird life can have 

 its explanation in anything but ignorance. Quite re- 

 cently an Italian near Atlantic City who had shot a 

 song sparrow and purple finch as "game," murderous- 

 ly assaulted the warden who attempted his arrest. 

 This was but one example of the killing of thousands 

 of song and insectivorous birds which takes place 

 throughout the State every year, because thousands 

 of foreigners who pour into the port of New York and 

 settle in the neighboring State of New Jersey have 

 been accustomed to regard birds as of value only to 



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