The Hawkeye Ornithologist and Oologist. 



THE AUDUBON SOCIETY. 



While the A. O. U. has been direct- 

 ing a fair share of its efforts to in- 

 quiries regarding the causes of the 

 rapid destruction of birds and to the 

 framing of laws of such character as 

 to secure their complete protection, 

 the Audubon Society, which was 

 founded by Forest ail Stream in 

 February, 1833, has been rendering 

 efficient service by creating and sus- 

 taining a strong public sentiment in 

 support of such legislative enact- 

 ments as already exist. 



With its stated purpose, the 

 protection of birds not used for food, 

 from destruction for mercantile pur- 

 poses, it has rapidly gained in mem- 

 bership, until now, scarcely two 

 years old, it has a membership of 

 about 40.000, distributed over a great 

 portion of North America. 



The Society is attempting to 

 "arouse the people to the considera- 

 tion of the consequences of the 

 wholesale destruction of birds for 

 millinery purposes, to instruct them 

 in the importance of the functions 

 performed by birds, to familiarize 

 them with the investigations of spec- 

 ialists into the subject, and to popu- 

 larize the somewhat dry reports of 

 the more rigidly scientific societies; 

 beyond this it aims at a national agi 

 tation which shall force the subject 

 upon the most indifferent, and shall 

 organize all friends of the movement 

 in one compact phalanx for effective 

 work, and provide for the general 

 presentation of the subject in its eth- 

 ical as well as its economical aspect." 



Whenever the subject of bird pro- 

 tection is presented to the public- 

 through the agency of the newspa- 

 pers, intelligence and right feeling 

 are to be found arrayed in its favor, 

 but the prevailing indifference and 

 thoughtlessness must be overcome 

 before the nation at large shall con- 



sider as a crime the wanton slaughter 

 of entirely harmless creatures which 

 are of such inestimable importance 

 to mankind. The people must be 

 brought to a fair understanding of 

 man's dependence on his feathered 

 friends, and the moral faculties quick- 

 end to a just recognition of their 

 ethical relation with everything that 

 has life. 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE 

 BOBOLINK. 



The bobolink, sweetest and best of 

 our New England meadow singers, is 

 gone. The pied dandy of tussock 

 and springing golden rod no more in 

 this vicinity tinkles his tangled bell 

 music in our fields. Around our city 

 and especially in the West Spring- 

 held meadows, as all up and down 

 the valley of the Connecticut, used to 

 be the resort and home of this char- 

 acteristic and blithe bird. This is the 

 first season that I have failed abso- 

 lutely to see or hear a single one. 



Of "late years they have been fewer, 

 each season being made melancholy 

 in a measure by the steadily depleted 

 numbers of the birds, and now I be- 

 lieve there are none. Others may- 

 have seen or heard them, but after 

 diligent seeking, foreseeing as I have 

 the inevitable, I fail to find a single 

 songster. 



One great cause of this is the shoot- 

 ing of this song bird by our friends 

 further south for food. Garbed in • 

 russet, in the fall he becomes in 

 Maryland the rice bird or the ortolan 

 and is shot and strung up in Balti- 

 more and Philadelphia markets by 

 the hundreds to be eaten. 



I should feel as if I were eating dead 

 music if I attempted to eat one of these. 

 There are bigger and better things to 

 eat than they. Why not leave in life 

 this epitome of tremulous melody, in- 

 stead of reducing him to the level of 

 an oyster or a clam? Our southern 

 friends have dainties enough for the 

 table without him, in their terrapin 

 and canvasbacks. 



Will our southern Audubon socie- 

 ties think of this and let us see if the 

 bobolink cannot be saved from ex- 

 tinction. — E. H. L'tthrop, in Forest 

 and Stream. 



