XVI 
GOULD LEAGUE OF BIRD LOVERS 
5. To cultivate a more friendly attitude towards birds by fostering an intelligent interest 
in them and their habits. 
6. To encourage the formation of bird sanctuaries. 
Rules were compiled, a scheme of work outlined, and a certificate was 
designed and issued to members. This certificate, tinted in green and illus¬ 
trated with drawings of birds, bore the following Bird Lover’s Pledge to 
be signed by members: 
“I hereby promise to protect all birds except those that are noxious, and to refrain from 
the unnecessary collection of wild birds’ eggs.” 
Since then the League has spread and flourished, till to-day it is one of 
the powers for good in the land, with a membership of six hundred thousand. 
Bird Day has become one of our annual red-letter days. Literary com¬ 
petitions and Bird-call competitions express and keep alive the interest and 
enthusiasm of members. 
Planted in a country school, the Gould League’s roots have spread to 
every school in the State, and from those schools and the idealism of their 
teachers, mainly, the Gould League has drawn its inspiration and its strength. 
A Bird-life Supplement to the Education Gazette , containing bird photo¬ 
graphs and information on the study of bird-life, was issued in October 1911 
to celebrate Bird Day; and that good work has been continued from year to 
year. No finer thing has come out of our schools than this League of Bird 
Lovers. 
Among those whom the League delight to honour three especially are 
acclaimed; the young idealist who sowed the seed, the older idealist who with 
him nurtured the young plant, and another whose care for it in later years 
has been rewarded by a tree in whose branches the birds of our land flourish 
in comparative peace and safety. 
One takes off one’s hat to Walter Finigan, Edward Webster, and Harold 
Wynne Hamilton. 
