State Audubon Reports 443 



The Society is now making a collection of lantern-slides of birds, to be 

 used in connection with lectures offered by its members in the future. The 

 collection already numbers 135, and others have been promised. These 

 slides will also be loaned to schools and to any responsible person, for edu- 

 cational purposes, at a nominal rental. A special effort will be made, this year, 

 to interest children in Audubon work through illustrated lectures. There has 

 also been some demand for such lectures from women's clubs. — Bertha 

 Bushee, Secretary. 



Connecticut. — Another year in the history of the Connecticut Audubon 

 Society has come to a close, and as we who have been at the heart of the work 

 look back over the past twelve months, we feel that, if much has been under- 

 taken, the greater proportion of our plans have fructified. 



First of all, the undertaking of a more aggressive work has been decided 

 upon. To merely stand still and hold our own is not enough; we must push 

 forward into wider fields of action, must keep upon the very crest of the wave 

 of bird-protection that is sweeping over the land, and, through federal legis- 

 lation, making itself felt in other countries. 



During the past year, there have been eight meetings of the Executive 

 Committee, with an average attendance of ten; a goodly number when it 

 is remembered that our Board is made up of members representing eight 

 towns some of which have difficult railway connections. 



Our work has turned in a new direction — the sending of letters and cir- 

 culars to influential people in the state, whether members of the Society or 

 not, asking their cooperation in furthering the passage of the two greatest 

 measures concerning bird-protection that have ever been brought before the 

 Federal Government — the McLean-Weeks Bill, providing for the protection 

 of birds during their migrations, and the Tariff Proviso, prohibiting the im- 

 portation of aigrettes, Osprey plumes, and the feathers, heads, wings, and 

 tails of wild birds. 



The scope of these measures, and the great fight through which they became 

 laws, were graphically described at the annual meeting, October 18. Last 

 January, a personal letter was written to each of the ninety-three United 

 States Senators to support the McLean- Weeks Bill. Last summer, when it 

 was learned that the feather-trade lobby in the House was making desperate 

 effort to have the plumage proviso altered so that its power would be prac- 

 tically destroyed, and had succeeded in getting the ear of some conservative 

 men who were unapproachable from a money standpoint, immediate steps 

 were taken to secure the attention of Senator Brandegee by issuing a 

 circular letter calling attention to the urgent need for immediate action. 

 This was sent to nearly 1,000 citizens, asking them to write at once to the 

 Senator. 



Many replies were received promising cooperation, and ^we believe that 



