406 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A History of the Audubon Movement 
(Second Article) 
By Ernest Ingersoll. 
T HE year 1903 was one of great activity on 
the part of the National Committee of 
Audubon Societies. Mr. William Dutcher, 
as its chairman, began then the publication of a 
series of four-paged illustrated leaflets, and con¬ 
tinued making, and sending them to farmers, 
especially, because they dealt largely with the 
proofs of the usefulness of the smaller birds to 
agriculture. Wardens were hired to guard, dur¬ 
ing the breeding season, many colonies of sea¬ 
birds along the Atlantic coast, and strenuous 
efforts were made to inform the public as to the 
cruelty and waste involved in providing milli¬ 
ners with airgrettes. A watch was kept upon legis¬ 
lation everywhere, and opposition to unwise laws 
was made as effective as possible. 
Workers for the cause in twenty States and 
the District of Columbia were financially aided 
in a modest way, and the seed sown sprang up 
in many widely scattered sections of the coun¬ 
try. The income from the fund raised by Albert 
H. Thayer, together with that contributed by 
fourteen of the State Audubon Societies, and a 
little realized from the sale of leaflets, amounted 
to $4,490.75—a marvelous and theretofore un¬ 
heard of sum for the cause of bird protection. 
This year also Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson induced 
the legislature of his home state, North Carolina, 
to enact into law a bill which he had drawn that 
was quite revolutionary in its character, as it 
chartered the State Audubon Society, which he 
had been instrumental in forming the previous 
year, and gave to it all the powers usually en¬ 
joyed by a state game commission in the mat¬ 
ter of collecting licenses, appointing wardens, and 
having general oversight of the birds and game 
of the state. As secretary of the society he 
therefore became in effect the state game com¬ 
missioner. Although attending to these duties 
and filling the chair of biology in the State Col¬ 
lege for Women, he found time to bring out his 
book, “Stories of Bird Life,” and also to do some 
work for the National committee. By its invita¬ 
tion he addressed a joint session of the Tennessee 
legislature, and was largely instrumental in se¬ 
curing the adoption of the Audubon law to pro¬ 
tect the non-game birds of that state. 
The National committee had also decided that 
year to establish regular forms of membership 
and seek general financial support. Mr. Dutcher’s 
activities were therefore extended to seeking 
financial assistance while directing the work of 
the committee. In the former task he had the 
assistance of Thayer and Pearson, and in the 
latter the aid and advice of Dr. Theodore S. 
Palmer, of Washington. 
The annual meeting of 1904 was notable as 
•marking the virtual withdrawal of the co-opera- 
ttion of the American Ornithologists’ Union, 
which failed to reappoint Dutcher, Pearson and 
some others, on its bird protection committee, 
because many of the members of the union re¬ 
sented the restrictive laws that were urged, 
which seemed to them to interfere too much with 
their “collecting”; and thereafter the Audubon 
committee went its way alone, and the American 
Ornithologists’ Union ceased to be an active 
agent for the cause of bird protection. Individual 
members of the union retained their interest, 
however, and worked as hard as ever. Chapman, 
for example, continued the efforts he had been 
making to have the Federal Government set apart 
Mr. William Dutcher. 
as “reserves” various islands and other places, 
where herons, pelicans and other desirable birds 
regularly bred. Mr. Dutcher took up this phase 
of the work vigorously and, with the aid of Dr. 
Palmer and Frank Bond, of Washington, con¬ 
tinued to interest President Roosevelt, and later 
President Taft, in establishing these reservations 
by “executive order.” Pearson, Finley, Kofman, 
Chamberlin and others in the field spied out and 
made reports on islands or lakes suited for this 
purpose. At present there are sixty-four Federal 
bird reserves. The system owes its existence to 
the Audubon Society. 
For some time Mr. Albert Willcox, of New 
York, had aided the committee financially, and 
had urged incorporation as a business measure, 
enabling the committee to secure and possess 
an endowment fund and to receive legacies; and 
he promised that if incorporation was made he 
would bequeath $100,000 from his own estate. 
After some deliberation this was accomplished in 
January, 1905, under the name of the National 
Association of Audubon Societies. Its first offi¬ 
cers were: President, William Dutcher; vice- 
presidents, John E. Thayer and Theodore S. 
Palmer; secretary, T. Gilbert Pearson; treasurer, 
Frank M. Chapman. 
Mr. Pearson, who had shown special qualifica¬ 
tions as a solicitor for memberships, was em¬ 
ployed to give half of his time to this work, his 
salary and expenses being provided by Mr. Will¬ 
cox from January, 1905, until the time of his 
death about two years later. 
Mr. Pearson, therefore, went to Boston shortly 
afterward and immediately began a systematic 
and business-like campaign for funds. Mr. 
Dutcher likewise devoted much 'time to this ef¬ 
fort at his office at 141 Broadway, New York 
City. The need for money and influence re¬ 
quired more members, and the roll was rapidly 
augmented. By the death of Mr. Willcox in 
the summer of 1906, that fund received his prom¬ 
ised bequest of $100,000; and by a commutative 
arrangement with his other heirs a deferred addi¬ 
tional bequest was paid in, amounting to about 
$232,000, so that with other resources the asso¬ 
ciation had, at the end of 1906, a permanent fund 
of more than $336,000 and an additional income, 
approaching $9,000. This was doing well for an 
incorporation only two years old. Only a dozen 
states were then without Audubon societies and 
thirty-five states had adopted the Audubon model 
law. 
The next four years witnessed a rapidly in¬ 
creasing growth in public interest for wild-life 
protection. The long discouraging period of 
pioneer educational endeavor was beginning to 
show results. Mr. Dutcher continued his attacks 
on the millinery trade in the feathers of wild 
birds, and in May, 1910, after a stupendous cam¬ 
paign, with Dutcher circularizing from New 
York and Pearson working personally among the 
legislators at Albany, the Audubon bill to pro¬ 
hibit the sale of the feathers of native birds in 
the state was enacted. The association through 
its various agents kept in close touch with state 
legislation generally and many laws for the es¬ 
tablishment of game commissions, warden forces, 
prohibiting sale of game, etc., owe their exist¬ 
ence to their active operations, backed up, di¬ 
rected and often financed by the resourceful 
president of the association. 
On October 19th, 1910, Mr. Dutcher, at the age 
of sixty-three, was stricken with paralysis, and 
since that time has not been able to take even the 
slightest part in the work, for the same stroke 
