BY THE WAYSIDE 
27 
making their nests, often as deep as eight¬ 
een or twenty inches. 
The Downy Woodpecker is the small¬ 
est member of this family. It is about 
the size of the English sparrow. It is 
black and white above and white under¬ 
neath, and has a red spot on the head. 
The Flicker is the largest and hand¬ 
somest member of the Woodpecker fam¬ 
ily. It is golden-brown striped, with 
black above. Its breast is light brown, 
spotted with black. There is a red spot 
on its head. Its wings and tail are lined 
with yellow. On its breast is a black 
spot shaped like a crescent. Unlike 
other Woodpeckers, it can sing, and will 
often feed on the ground. The Flickers 
hollow out three or four holes for their 
nests in trees or in buildings. I do not 
know why they go to so much trouble, 
for one nest seems enough for any bird. 
—Narcissa Lewis in Birds and Nature. 
The Audubon 'Movement. 
The effort of which the outside; public 
has heard most has been that directed 
against the use of native birds in mil¬ 
linery, and incidentally the sale of song¬ 
birds in the markets for food. So far as 
these objects are concerned, the whole 
situation has been changed in twenty 
years. In this city, where in 1886 Frank 
M. Chapman found forty species of the 
most beautiful native birds on women’s 
hats, the shops could be sec.r" v '°d now 
and not a handful of skins discovered. 
The “model law” drawn up by the 
American Ornithologists’ Union is in 
force in thirty States and the District of 
Columbia. The organized bird-lovers 
ask for the enforcement of the laws against 
bird slaughter as other bodies of citizens 
ask to have enforced those against policy¬ 
playing or burglary. The Federal power 
has been invoked in the Lacev law\ which 
excludes from interstate commerce all 
birds killed illegally in any State, and 
makes those legally killed subject to the 
law of the State into which they are 
brought. 
Until a few years’ ago the makers of 
air-rifles invariably advertised that the 
half-toy weapons would “kill small game 
at fifty feet.” As a glance at magazine 
advertising pages will show, they do not 
emphasize that feature any longer. It is 
merely another sign of the great growth 
of humane feeling which has accompanied 
the enthusiasm for “nature study” in the 
last few years. This has been undoubt¬ 
edly one of the forces which have helped 
the present Audubon movement succeed 
where an earlier one failed. But if any 
one supposes that these sharpened 
sympathies would have secured re¬ 
sults without the aid of stringent 
restrictive laws, let him consider the 
case of the aigrette. Of all forms of 
feathers worn for adornment, no other is 
secured at such a cost in bird life or un¬ 
der circumstances so calculated to awaken 
human pity. No other instance of bird 
slaughter has been so constantly dwelt 
upon by the Audubonites. Yet in a 
State like New York, where the efforts to 
secure a law prohibiting the sale of 
aigrettes have been unsuccessful, these 
delicate plumes, even at rapidly advanc¬ 
ing prices, are worn, for all that evi¬ 
dence can show to the contrary, about as 
much as they ever were. It was in re¬ 
venge for interference with their highly 
profitable trade that the Florida plume 
hunters killed Guy Bradley.— The Nation. 
Sidney S. Stansell has organized a 
Junior Audubon Society in his school at 
Tonica, Ill. This is the first in Putman 
county. 
