562 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Nov. i, 1913. 
time the matter was first brought to the atten¬ 
tion of Congress, we have a Federal law which 
absolutely prohibits the importation of the feath¬ 
ers of all birds, except for educational purposes. 
Ostrich plumes and the feathers of domestic 
fowls are not included. This makes the United 
States the leader of all nations of the world in 
the suppression of the feather traffic. 
GENERAL WARDEN WORK. 
During the year the association has investi¬ 
gated many complaints regarding violation of 
bird protective laws. We have caused the arrest 
and conviction of more than one merchant in 
New York city for selling heron “aigrettes” and 
other feathers. We have also reported to State 
game commissioners many cases of the illegal 
killing of birds. We always give careful atten¬ 
tion to any cases reported to the New York 
office, and all field agents understand that they 
are to do likewise. 
The association has employed during the 
spring and summer twenty-seven guards to 
serve as wardens at the various important breed¬ 
ing colonies of water birds, which it has been 
our custom to protect. These guarded colonies 
are situated mainly in Michigan, Maine, New 
York, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida and Louis¬ 
iana. The colony birds had a most successful 
season. Not in years have they suffered less 
from the effects of storms and tides. About 
two million birds are believed to have found a 
safe refuge on the islands or lakes protected by 
the agents the past season. 
EGRET PROTECTION. 
Not included in the number of wardens 
mentioned above are the sixteen men employed 
the past season to locate and protect egret 
colonies in the Southern States. 
These birds had a few years ago become so 
rare, and so much public interest is centered in 
their protection it is well to record in perma¬ 
nent form as complete a record of their num¬ 
ber and distribution as possible. 
In North Carolina one colony is known and 
protected. It contained this year about fifty- 
nine egrets and twenty-five snowy egrets. 
In South Carolina there are about a dozen 
important heronries, containing egrets of one 
.or both species, and a somewhat larger number 
of places where a few birds breed. We estimate 
the number of breeding egrets in this State at 
1,000 and of snowy egrets 3,000. 
Ten wardens in Florida guarded about 2,700 
breeding egrets and 1,000 snowy egrets. 
In Georgia, where our largest egret colony 
is located, the number believed to have occurred 
there was 1,200. 
Thus from the reports of the wardens and 
other sources we believe that it is not far from 
correct to say that during the past summer the 
association protected about 6,400 large egrets 
and 4.025 snowy egrets. 
Capt. B. J. Pacetti, of Ponce Park. Fla., 
inspector of Government bird reservations, and 
in the past one of our most active wardens, re¬ 
cently secured the conviction of two men who 
shot egrets near Daytona. The case of the four 
plume hunters now being tried for raiding Alli¬ 
gator Bay colony and firing on our warden, 
Charles Allen, is still pending in the courts. 
JUNIOR AUDUBON WORK. 
For future effect perhaps the most import¬ 
ant work in which this association is engaged 
to-day is the organizing of Audubon classes 
among the school children of the country and 
giving them systematic instruction in bird study 
and bird protection. 
This effort began three years ago with the 
first large contribution from Mrs. Russell Sage 
for bird work in the Southern States. In this 
endeavor we to-day have the active co-operation 
of a number of the State societies, particularly 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Ohio, Connecticut, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. 
The splendid financial support received from 
Mrs. Sage, and from one other member whose 
name we are not permitted to divulge, has per¬ 
mitted us to continue and greatly increase this 
work the past year. As the classes are furnished 
with material which costs us two dollars for 
every one received from the children's fees, it 
would have been utterly impossible to accom¬ 
plish the results which we have to record but 
for this help. Mrs. Sage gave $5,000 again this 
year, and we enrolled over 12,000 junior members 
in the Southern schools. There is more interest 
in bird study in the Northern States and less 
effort is required to interest teachers and pupils. 
For this reason, by means of $7,000 contributed 
by our unnamed friend, over 40,000 junior mem¬ 
bers were added the past twelve months in the 
North. I believe the number will be even greater 
the coming year, as our benefactor has provided 
a fund of $10,000 for this work. 
ALASKA. 
The work of preparing special material for 
educational work in Alaska has gone forward 
this year nearly to completion. Six leaflets, with 
colored plates and outline drawings, have been 
issued on Alaska bird subjects. These, together 
with a special article on the general bird life of 
Alaska, prepared by E. W. Nelson, and other 
material, will shortly be embodied in book form, 
and will be supplied to every one of the 8,000 
school children of that territory. 
It will be remembered that this entire under¬ 
taking is being financed by one of our loyal and 
liberal members, whose name we regret to say 
the donor insists on withholding for the present. 
From the fund furnished from this same source, 
Dr. Herold Pleath, of Stanford University, Cali¬ 
fornia, was employed the past summer to repre¬ 
sent the association as warden and special in¬ 
vestigator to the Forster Island Government Bird 
Reservation off the southern coast of Alaska. 
FIELD AGENTS. 
Six field agents were engaged by the board 
the past year to give part or all of their time to 
lecturing and attending to other duties in con¬ 
nection with Audubon work in their respective 
territories. These were: E, H. Forbush, in New 
England; Win. L. Finley, in Oregon; Miss Kath¬ 
arine H. Stuart, in Virginia; Dr. Eugene Swope, 
in Ohio; E. V. Visart, in Arkansas, and James 
Henry Rice, in South Carolina. 
All of these rendered splendid service, and 
the detailed reports of their efforts will be pub¬ 
lished and distributed to members with this re¬ 
port. In addition to their other labors, Messrs. 
Forbush, Rice and Swope rendered material ser¬ 
vice in adding many names to the list of mem¬ 
bers and subscribers to the association. In this 
connection we regret to state that Mr. Forbush 
has found his duties as State ornithologist of 
Massachusetts to have become so great that he 
will be unable to devote as much time to Audu¬ 
bon matters as formerly. The board has, there¬ 
fore, arranged for Winthrop Packard, secretary 
of the Audubon Society of that State, to give 
one-half of his time to the work of the associa¬ 
tion in Massachusetts. 
STATE SOCIETIES. 
We cannot well over-estimate the import¬ 
ance of the splendid work being done by the 
thirty or more State Audubon societies. These 
organizations contain hundreds of the most 
zealous bird lovers and bird protectionists in the 
land, and their influence on the conservation of 
the wild life in their several States is a most 
pronounced fact, as is well known to all de¬ 
stroyers of wild life. 
A strong State society has recently been 
formed in Arkansas. Mr. Visart and many 
ladies of Little Rock have been working to this 
end for some time, and the society was launched 
upon the occasion of a lecture delivered this, 
month in that city by E. A. Mcllhenny, one of 
our Louisiana members, and a most active 
worker for conservation. It will be recalled that 
it was through this gentleman's activities that 
Mrs. Russell Sage became interested last year 
in the purchase of Marsh Island as a bird re¬ 
serve. 
PUBLICATIONS. 
It has been the custom of the association 
for some time to issue each year six new edu¬ 
cational leaflets, each one giving a brief life 
history of some American bird. These are al¬ 
ways published first in our official organ, Bird 
Lore. 
The past year eleven subjects have been 
treated in this manner, as follows: Hudsonian 
Curlew, written by A. C. Bent; Ruffed Grouse, 
by Dr. George Bird Grinnell; Willow Ptarmigan, 
by Joseph Grinnell; Emperor Goose and the 
Alaska Longspur, by E. W. Nelson; Crested 
Auklet, by Dr. C. H. Townsend; Tufted Puffin, 
by W. L. Dawson; Catbird, by Witmer Stone; 
Chickadee, by E. H. Forbush, and Green Heron 
and Brown Thrasher, by T. Gilbert Pearson. 
In addition to the above our first thirty 
leaflets issued have all been rewritten, and six¬ 
teen of them provided with new colored illus¬ 
trations. Our entire series of educational leaf¬ 
lets has thus been rendered uniform as to ap¬ 
pearance and manner of treatment. The cost 
of ten of these early subjects, in which Mr. 
Dutcher was especially interested, was met from 
the income of the Mary Dutcher Memorial Fund. 
GENERAL. 
During the year the association expended 
$1,206.10 in co-operation with others in the con¬ 
struction of a stout wire fence inclosure on the 
Government Niobrara Bird Reservation in Ne¬ 
braska, to which a herd of bison, elk and deer 
have since been removed. 
We purchased an island near Charleston, 
S. C.. which is a famous ancestral breeding 
ground for snowy herons, and provided funds 
to the Charleston Museum to replant with trees 
another heronry, which had been almost de¬ 
stroyed by axe men. 
We have contributed to the general or 
special work of several State Audubon Societies 
and individual workers, and in other ways have 
sought to aid and encourage organizations and 
individuals engaged in wild life preservation. 
