ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY : 



Uncle Sam and the Birds 



On the opposite page is a reduced facsimile of a poster now being distributed in 

 large quantities by the United States Department of Agriculture. This is merely one 

 of many evidences of the importance of bird conservation in the eyes of the wise men 

 at Washington who look out for Uncle Sam's farming interests. The small type, lost 

 in reproduction reads, in part, as follows : 



Birds feed upon almost all kinds of injurious insects. They lead active lives and require much 

 food. A single bird often eats more than 100 insects at a single meal and sometimes consumes 

 several thousand small insects. Birds on a 200-acre farm in North Carolina destroyed a million 

 green bugs or wheat aphids daily. There are many localities where birds have saved certain trees, 

 garden crops, or farm fields from total destruction. 



Encourage all kinds of birds, as the various species prey on different kinds of insects. For 

 example, the hairy and downy woodpeckers render a. special service in the protection of trees. 

 They glean pests from beneath the bark and from within the wood. They account yearly for many 

 a scale insect, bark beetle, borer, caterpillar, and ant. The bobwhite, one of the most important 

 of our game birds, renders particular service in cultivated fields by destroying large numbers of 

 potato beetles, wireworms, clover weevils, bollworms, cutworms, army worms, and other crop 

 pests. The bobwhite suffers particularly from hard winters. A little suet or a little cracked 

 corn and grain will keep these valuable feathered servants in your employ. 



For bobwhites. build low hutches with roofs that will keep out snow, or make wigwam-like 

 stacks of grain sheaves with openings below. Keep the entrances free from snow and scatter 

 within cracked corn or small grains or seeds. Putting out food on a bare spot on the' ground 

 is an easier method, but not so useful. 



For woodpeckers, place suet under wire netting on trees; pour a melted mixture of suet and 

 grain seed in cracks in bark or in large holes bored in thick pieces of wood accessible to the 

 birds; or make a 2-inch hole in a coconut and fill the interior with chopped suet and nuts and 

 suspend from a branch. 



For small birds in general, make food shelves at windows or on trees, sheltered from the 

 wind, and with raised edges to keep food from being blown off. Better still, put the food in a 

 hopper, which will protect the supply from the weather and let it down gradually. Small birds 

 will feed also at the coconut larders mentioned above and upon the suet mixtures. 



Aigrettes and Other Feathers of Wild Birds Withdrawn from 



Sale in Chicago 



The Audubon Society has secured a complete victory in its efforts 

 to stop the sale of aigrettes, bird of Paradise and goura feathers in Chicago 

 stores. In the Illinois Audubon Bulletin for Spring 1916. it will be 

 remembered, there was printed an opinion rendered the Fish and Game 

 Commission by the Attorney General of the State of Illinois, at the request 

 of this Society, holding that the law forbidding dealers having such 

 feathers in their possession or offering them for sale is valid. 



In November last, two directors of The Illinois Audubon Society found, 

 on investigation, that the law was being generally violated in Chicago, 

 and they took specific note of a number of stores thus engaged. There- 

 upon the Attorney for the Society, Mr. Everett Millard, wrote a letter 

 to each of these stores, which stated the position of the Society as follows : 

 "As attorney for the Illinois Audubon Society, I beg to 

 inform you that the representatives of the Society, by personal 

 investigation, have found that your store has in its possession. 

 and is offering for sale and selling aigrettes, as well as Paradise 

 feathers and goura feathers, in violation of Chapter 56 of the 

 Illinois Revised Statutes, the Fish and Game Act. This act 

 provides for a fine and imprisonment until the fine or costs are 

 paid, for violation thereof. 



I attach hereto a copy of an opinion by P. J. Lucey, attorney 

 general of Illinois, rendered the Game and Fish Conservation 

 Commission, holding that vendors of aigrettes in Illinois may 

 be prosecuted for selling them or having them in their 



