ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 45 



hour hoping to see him again but I did not. As October third 

 was followed by three days of mild weather I trust the little 

 fellow reached the sunny south without further accident." 



Esther A. Craigmile 



Rockford 



Five hundred bird homes were added to the public parks of 

 Rockford, 111., this vear through the co-operation of Rockford 

 Park District, manual training department of the city's public 

 schools and Edgar E. Bartlett. Mr. Bartlett, who is a great lover 

 of birds, conducts a public campaign each spring in the interest 

 of bird life through his daily newspaper, The Register-Gazette. 

 The campaign this year was the most successful yet held in point 

 of practical bird homes obtained and interest aroused. 



Details of the campaign were arranged at a conference early 

 in March of the eleven manual training instructors, Thomas 

 Bjorge, supervisor of Manual Arts; E. E. Lewis, superintendent 

 of city schools ; Paul B. Riis, superintendent of the park dis- 

 trict, and Mr. Bartlett. The latter offered nineteen prizes, four 

 for each manual training grade and three special ones, with use 

 of the news columns of the Register-Gazette for stimulating 

 publicity. Students receiving bird houses were to receive credit 

 for the work. 



Owing to a large number of the houses built in former con- 

 tests being impractical bird homes and useless after the contest, 

 it was decided to have all houses this year built according to 

 plans and specifications prepared by Superintendent Riis of 

 the park district. Each class of students was furnished with a 

 set of plans and specifications for the houses to be built. Copies 

 of Bird Lore were furnished each student to further aid him in 

 his work. 



In addition to the cash prizes awarded builders of the best 

 entries in the campaign all boys building houses were the guests 

 of the Register-Gazette and park commission on a boat ride on 

 Rick river and wiener roast at Dr. Warren M. Miller's "Idlewild" 

 farm on Memorial Day. 



In order to establish a real competitive basis, restrictive 

 classes were provided, confining the pupil to build wren, blue 

 bird, flicker nesting box, or robin shelving box. Those who de- 

 sired, could build martin houses. Several very fine types of 

 these were built. 



The plans furnished were not arbitrary, excepting as to 

 dimensions of boxes, location and size of entrance holes, and 

 such other items of construction necessary to the building of 

 successful bird houses. In fact, every encouragement was held 



