18 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
THE STATE AUDUBON SOCIETY. 
At the annual meeting held in Madison. May 
20. 1004, the president, Prof. 0. B. Zimmer- 
ma. gave a very interesting address. A par¬ 
tial report of this, taken from the Madison 
Democrat, is given here, having been omitted 
from the June number on account of lack of 
space. 
To this our seventh annual meeting of the 
Wisconsin Audubon society I take pleasure in 
making a short report of progress for the year 
and a few suggestions for the future. 
We have conducted the business of the or¬ 
ganization in rather a small way and yet with 
all the necessary attention of those interested, 
so many other duties I feel we still have done 
generally toward an end—in that we are keep- 
in" aliye the interest in our birds and their 
protection. This with the desire, that our for¬ 
ests and the natural beauties of our state, 
may be preserved to future generations, cer¬ 
tainly is worthy of what little effort we can 
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put forth to this most desirable end. 
While we may be thought of as enthusiasts 
and hobbyists it is still at the bottom some¬ 
thing worthy of being a part of and taking an 
interest in. We enjoy nature more and there¬ 
fore life more for our little knowledge of our 
birds and trees. 
I will review then some of the work of the 
past year and suggest a few things for the fu¬ 
ture. 
Bird classes will have been conducted cov¬ 
ering eight weeks of time and in two sections— 
the children Saturday morning for from one 
to two hours and the adults’ class on Sunday 
morning from one to two and a half hours. 
The time being as early as was consistent 
with conditions of weather, convenience of all 
concerned, and the most desirable time to see 
the birds, i. e., while feeding. In numbers at¬ 
tending these bird rambles we have had from 
18 to 87 in the children’s classes and from 17 
to 54 in the adults’ class, the averages being 
in the thirties. 
As to the number of birds seen in a morn¬ 
ing our lists run from twenty odd to as high 
as fiftv-two—a very creditable list. During 
V' 
the entire time thus far fully 130 varieties 
were noted. 
It is to me most pleasant to know that by 
this most interesting work, instituted some 
years ago by Dr. O. G. Libby, several persons 
in this vicinity have become deeply interested, 
and especially the young men of our city, 
where I can count some five who have really 
become very proficient in identification of our 
native birds, and some of whom may even be 
lead to follow natural phenomena as a pro¬ 
fession—in one of its phases. To my way of 
thinking no time is more ripe to start into the 
subject of nature study than that covered be¬ 
tween the ages of the children interested in our 
classes The care with which some of these 
young people determine the name of a new 
bird and their desire to be accurate is indeed 
a satisfaction to those about them who are 
aiding in the interest. 
It is also a pleasure to see how both old 
and young find enjoyment in this pastime. 
We have had individuals in the classes rang¬ 
ing from five years to, I should judge, fully 
sixty-five. A number of ladies, too, have been 
regular attenders who have years ago acquired 
a considerable knowledge of our birds, their 
songs and nests. On the whole it seems we 
could well encourage all the local Audubon so¬ 
cieties about the state to try to institute the 
bird walks in the neighboring woods and 
fields. Wisconsin’s great fields, her wood 
lands, underbrush, streams and lakes afford a 
most attractive place for the three hundred 
and fifty resident and migrant species of birds. 
Following the desire of the speaker a year 
ago, it has been found entirely possible to co¬ 
operate with the state game warden in the 
protection of our game and other birds. 
Through his kindness we have recently secured 
the appointment of five of our members as spe¬ 
cial deputy fish and game wardens, with pow¬ 
er to prosecute in the same manner as the reg¬ 
ular wardens. It is our desire to pay more spe¬ 
cial attention to the innocent birds, their nests 
and their preservation. By care and going 
slowlv we mav thus ably assist the game war- 
den along a line he is frequently unable to 
watch as closely as we. It is my hope that 
this work will be prosecuted and that by an¬ 
other year we may have something to report 
to show the desirability of this move as well 
as its effectiveness. 
Our bird slides are still serving a good pur¬ 
pose. The past year hey have been divided 
into several groups and accompanying each 
group it our plan to have a written lecture 
so that the lecture and slides mav be sent 
about the state and our fine collection thus be 
made available to audiences at an exceedingly 
small cost for an evening’s entertainment. We 
