FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
Dr. WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 
the object of this journal will be to 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor 
recreation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
NOVEMBER 
I N some strange mood I come to the conclusion 
poets bend humbly to false gods and idols of 
vapor. I find wrong notes in a beautiful sym¬ 
phony, melancholy even when colors lingei in the 
brown landscape, death when sun still glows and 
skies are blue as far seas. Prowling amid a wil¬ 
derness of verse upon verse, line after line, when 
one desires to find the mood and spirit of November 
is like hunting at the foot of the rainbow. Re¬ 
morse tinges every poem, sympathy for the dying 
year, and so, being one who holds intimate com¬ 
munion with nature in all the moods of the sea¬ 
sons, I fear the poets are not virgin interpreters. 
Singing of mist and phantasy, they are false 
prophets. 
To see the eleventh month brooding in lonely 
contemplation, I go to the haunts of her, to the 
open beyond the pavement’s end. Touches ot Oc¬ 
tober’s bacchantic carnival linger in the dusky 
miles, splashes of red and gold thrown aside, frag¬ 
ments left in retreat’s abandonment. An invigo¬ 
rating coolness rides the wind—it stings the cheeks 
and stirs the roadside leaves to their dance of 
death, it seeps up the nostrils and makes of breath¬ 
ing a splendid thing. If nature gave nothing else 
to man for a November gift, this would be a won¬ 
derful achievement. 
Roads of spring had a fairy beauty, of summer 
a dreamy quality. Those of November are epic m 
their open . lengths, with a sheer loneliness that 
entreats rather than repels, a silence that is a 
mood, a spirit, somber, friendly, unforgettable as 
a great event. The tramper abroad some old road 
feels a yearning and apparent restlessness. It is 
in the petulant song of winds and of the last leaves 
in the oaks, the bark of the squirrel, the hawk s 
scream, the bluejay’s note of half-disguised sur- 
prise, the gossip of crows in sable council. Like 
some faint twilight, the fabric of dusk hangs over 
the landscape—in the shadows it is a gossamer 
thing, in the shafts of sunlight athwart road and 
sere fields a living web tempering and softening 
all growth, in the distance a pall hiding blue hills 
and horizon in a smoky curtain. 
Leaves flutter in the trees, laughing at the cold 
caresses of rain and the strength of errant winds. 
The scarlet oak burns like a torch amid a grove 
of pines, and its isolation gives it the splendor ot a 
mighty ruby glowing in a pool of green. In open 
fields an ancient white oak, buttressed of trunk, 
broad of arms, dense with thickets of twigs and 
patches of remaining leaves whose vinous reds flare 
in molten beauty. The pods of honey locust rattle in 
the passing gusts like dry bones and a few yellow 
leaves remain to dance among the thorns. 
There is a wisp of yellow in the spectral syca¬ 
mores, a bit of gold hanging in the entanglement of 
willows along meadow waters, and there is grace 
of line and harmony of delicate colors in the leaf¬ 
less dogwoods. Against a wall of piny green, the 
gleam of slender white birch reminds one of ghostly 
columns in some dusky-corridored temple. Elegent 
beech, their trunks shrouded in delicate lichens, 
stand in an orderly line along the river’s low shore; 
the sun plays upon them, and their tenacious 
leaves shine and flicker with the heart of pure 
gold. To one side sets a painter with his easel and 
palate snaring the beauty of the trees, the shining 
river, the matted shore, the smoky hills—captur¬ 
ing the mood of November. 
WORLD BIRD PROTECTION 
A LTHOUGH it has proven a difficult matter 
to create a political League of Nations, T. 
Gilbert Pearson, President of the National 
Association of Audubon Societies, has demonstrat¬ 
ed the possibility of creating a league for the very 
useful purpose of protecting the wild birds of the 
world. Leading scientific and conservation socie¬ 
ties in nine countries have now organized and 
pledged to active endeavors for the protection of 
the birds in their countries, and in aiding similar 
movements in more benighted regions. 
This movement was launched at a conference 
held in London in June last year. On invitation 
of Mr. Pearson, delegates from several countries 
met in the home of Hon. Reginald McKenna and 
determined that such action was necessary if much 
of the valuable bird life is to be saved from de¬ 
spoliation. Among the very active members of 
this conference were Lord Edward Grey and Lord 
Buxton, of England; P. G. Van Tienhoven, of Hol¬ 
land; and the eminent naturalist, M. Jean Dela- 
cour, of France. 
Mr. Pearson, President of this International 
Committee, who has just returned on the U. S. 
Steamship Leviathan from a lecturing and organ¬ 
izing tour through seven of the countries in Eu¬ 
rope, said today: “Europe is looking to America 
for leadership in some of the lines of endeavor m 
which we as a nation have specialized. There is 
no country in the world that is so thoioughly 
organized and has such advanced laws for bird 
protection as the United States, and many of our 
methods can and doubtless will be adopted to meet 
European conditions. 
“Through southern Europe especially very little 
attention is paid to bird protection. This may be 
illustrated by the fact that in all of France m the 
year 1921 there were only sixty convictions tor 
violation of the bird laws. During the same period 
in New York State alone there were more than 
one thousand. In Hungary I was told that during 
the past year with all of the thousands of bird 
killers in the country not one had been prosecuted. 
In Italy I saw nets, traps and various cages used 
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