OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AUDUBON SOCIETY: 
One Year 50 Cents 
Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Madison, W isconsin 
Entered as second class matter Auoust 23, 1909, at Madison, Wis under the act of Conoress of March 3, 1879 
VOL. XV NOVEMBER, 1913 No. 3 
A WORD FOR THE SWALLOW 
M 
I France is, like all Latin countries, 
i 
somewhat behind hand in the matter of 
bird protection, but the English Royal 
society for the Protection of Birds is 
doing* her share to change that. The 
following editorial from the London 
Daily Mail is interesting enough in its 
contents, and charming enough in its 
style to be well worth reproducing 
here: 
George Wagner. 
“ Political understandings often have 
results not included in the original 
j schemes of those who brought them 
about. Just at present France and 
England are happily on terms of mu- 
I 'tual good will, and the friends of one 
are of necessity the friends of the 
other. Our Foreign Office, doubtless 
t 
mindful of this fact, and prompted by 
ii the Royal Society for the Protection oi 
: Birds, has lately taken the opportunity 
i; of a lull in European politics to say a 
8good word to our neighbors for the 
nkwallow and his kind. Everyone will 
|be giad to see the swallow admitted to 
; :he Entente Cordiale. A bird so loved 
on this side of the Channel deserves 
* consideration on the other, and the 
government of the Republic, with its 
usual courtesy, has promised to give 
the matter its immediate attention. 
Not a moment too soon are we inter¬ 
esting ourselves in the fortunes of 
the charming migrants during those 
double pilgrimages which it makes 
each year, northward in spring and 
southward in autumn. With us the 
swallow is safe enough; poets and lov¬ 
ers of the- country have long ago 
thrown the aegis of sentiment round 
about “the sea-blue bird of March.” It, 
comes to us in the time of daffodils and 
primroses; it is the emblem of an awak¬ 
ening season, the associate of returning 
sunshine and flower-bestrewn hedges. 
It is the spirit of the country lanes 
and meadows at the most beautiful 
time of the year, and none ceases to 
marvel at that wonderful instinct 
which brings the identical birds, the 
same co-mates of previous summers, 
from far-away Egyptian temples, un¬ 
failingly to some well-known English 
cottage porch. The swallow carries 
good luck with it; even the hand of 
the egg-collecting urchin is stayed 
where it is concerned; the villager 
who destroys a nest is a graceless 
member of society, one unworthy of 
the trust the swallow has placed in his 
