ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 29 



adjacent to the city. Ultimately Rockford, the "Forest City," will be 

 a community sanctuary. 



ROCK ISLANDANI) MOLINE : There have been enthusiasts and 

 newspaper publicity in Moline and Rock Island for years and these to- 

 gether with the facility with which bird study can be carried on at the 

 Arsenal and "The Watch Tower" along the Mississippi have made for 

 widespread interest in both cities. The big thing this year has been the 

 organization of the Rock Island County Bird Club by Burtis H. Wilson, 

 the "Bird Man" of Rock Island, and others, including Mr. E. C. Fisher, 

 Superintendent of Schools at Rock Island, Mr. L. A. Mahoney, the Super- 

 intendent at Moline, and Miss Lou Harris, County Superintendent of Rock 

 Island County. The latter has asked that a bird club be organized in each 

 of the schools in the county and has especially invited each teacher to join, 

 Adult memberships are twenty-five cents and child memberships ten cents. 

 The school clubs are taken into the county club on the payment of one adult 

 fee. Mr. Wilson has given lectures with lantern slides in both cities and 

 in many of the rural schools. Up to April 1 nearly one thousand members 

 were enrolled in the county club. Adults and children alike are planning to 

 make the whole county a bird preserve. 



About seven years ago Mr. Wilson became editor of the Daily Union 

 "Bird Corner," a strictly "honorary" job. The first bird-house building 

 contest in Rock Island was started in accordance with suggestions from the 

 "Bird Corner." This year the contest was omitted because, since there 

 are so many bird-houses now in Rock Island, it was thought that with the 

 normal increase there would be more than would be used. Mr. Wilson 

 complains that when any bird house remains unused the citizens of Rock 

 Island "blame it onlo" him. This year the Moline Dispatch and the Greater 

 Moline Committee raised fifty dollars for prizes for bird-houses under the 

 direction of the County Bird Club. Seventy houses were entered and the 

 contest was a success. 



URBANA : Professor Frank Smith has a class of sixty-six members 

 in ornithology at the University of Illinois, which goes a-field three times 

 a week in eleven divisions of six members each. The thoroughness with 

 which they cover the field can be seen from the census report printed else- 

 where in this Bulletin. Professor Smith has very valuable migration data 

 covering the last fourteen years and it is to be hoped that this can be 

 printed and made available for students in Illinois and elsewhere. 



WHEATON: There is an Audubon Society of about one hundred 

 members at Wheaton, including the Junior Society. Special stress has been 

 laid upon the work of the young people and the society has been ably as- 

 sisted by the teachers in the public schools. A contest among members of 

 the high school manual training classes under the supervision of S. C. 

 Berry is concerned with the building -of bird-houses. The houses are to 

 be judged from the viewpoint of design and construction and prizes rang- 

 ing from one to five dollars will be awarded. A number of stereopticon 

 lectures have been given in Wheaton during the past year. One in 

 scheduled for the present month. These lectures are free to the public 

 and are given to audiences which crowd the capacity of the hall. Miss 

 Ruth Patrick is secretary of the society. 



