








































ARE AUDUBON SOCIETIES MIS-NAMED? 
"For well over half a century "Audubon societies" in this country have 
labored for the protection of birds, the general fostering of out-door 
education, and the conservation of all renewable natural resources. The 
National Audubon Society, with headquarters in New York City, has become 
one of the most powerful of all influences in this field. To what degree 
is the name "Audubon" appropriately used in such endeavors? 
A superficial inspection of the record would yield only a dubious answer. 
John James Audubon, who can stir the tenderest emotions in any breast when 
he recreates birds with his brush or his pen, proves to have been a man 
imbued with a primordial hunting instinct. In his younger days, at least, 
he killed tirelessly for sport. The frankness of some of the words in 
which he expresses his point of view are, in the light of our generation, 
astounding. 
For example, he states in one of his journals that it was a poor day's 
hunting in Florida if he shot fewer than a hundred birds. He sometimes 
even shot from the deck of a ship, when there was no possibility of 
recovering his victims. In Louisiana he discovered a new species, the 
rough-winged swallow, not by first recognizing it, as something to inves- 
tigate, but by idly wondering how many swallows he could kill on the wing 
before missing a shot. He tried it, and found himself with a pile of 
little birds hitherto unknown! Once he and his brother-in-law encountered 
| in the woods a 17-foot alligator which they proceeded to slay “for the sake 
1h of destruction, I must say," writes Audubon. 
As Audubon grew older, he became aware, step by step, that the order of 
nature was changing with a fast-growing human population, and his own 
sentiments appear to have undergone a corresponding change. A study of all 
his publications with the object of tracing the development of his ideas on 
conservation would be rewarding." 
The above excerpt is from an address by Robert Cushman Murphy, delivered to 
the New York Historical Society on the 95th anniversary of Audubon's death 
in 1946. A reprint of the speech, "John James Audubon--An Evaluation of the 
Man and His Work'"t may be obtained from the American Museum of Natural 
History in New York, for 20¢. 
DETERGENTS CAUSE DAMAGE 
A biological survey, assessing the damage caused by the Torrey Canyon 
disaster, has found that the detergents caused more damage than the oil. 
The detergents killed most of the limpets which acted as scavengers and 
helped control the growth of seaweed. With the limpets and barnacles gone, 
many beaches are beginning to turn green. Over 50,000 sea birds were killed 
by the seeping oil. 



N. R&C LO (MER TAIN OCTOBER 

The Natural Resources Council of Illinois will hold its fall meeting 
in Rock Island on October 25, 26, 27 at the Augustana College, Union 
Hall (38th St. and 7th Ave.). The Theme of the conference will be 
"The Future of Man in His Environment". 



Elton Fawks, Chairman N.R.C.I. 

