12 THE AUD UB ONE Osa 
of Kodiak Island, and has a luxurious kelp growth to provide a fine habitat 
for over 500 animals. The Sea Otter was near extinction over 100 years 
ago.... The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declared the creation of the 
20,000 acre Mark Twain National Wildlife Refuge on the Mississippi River 
at Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. ... The Missouri Conservation Commission 
has announced that the Prairie Chicken is slowly disappearing from that 
state: A census route in Harrison county had 24 males in the early 1950’s, 
but only 8 were recorded in 1956 and none in 1958. In Sullivan County, 
187 males in 16 booming grounds were found in 1941. In 1951, 24 birds 
were counted and none have been seen since 1956. 
615 Rochdale Circle, Lombard, Illinois 
Birds At Your Window — II 
By Mrs. LESTER STOLTE 
IN THE SEPTEMBER (1957) AUDUBON BULLETIN members were asked to 
write of their experiences with birds injured or killed at picture windows. 
Six years ago this May we moved into our ranch home, which has two 
picture windows across the front. They were important to me because I 
could watch birds through them, but my joy was short-lived when I found 
first a meadow lark laying at the foot of the window, then a flicker, and 
after that several robins, an oriole, two or three warblers, and a fox spar- 
row. Our little girl wept each time we found a dead bird, and we felt we 
had a “bird cemetery” in our back yard. Something just had to be done! 
Each day I closed my draperies, but then I couldn’t see the birds. In the 
meantime I met a mutual bird lover from Oregon. She told me of a purple 
finch nesting in shrubbery in front of her dining room window, which gave 
her an excellent excuse for not washing her windows. Suddenly I knew how 
to protect birds in front of picture windows! I selected beautiful flowering 
shrubs; a crimson crab, a double flowering plum, and a strawberry tree, 
which has red and orange berries in the fall. Last spring as I walked into 
the room three cedar waxwings sat in the crabapple tree. What a picture! 
In front of our other window I planted a huge forsythia bush. Two springs 
ago when the bush was loaded with yellow blossoms, we had a ruby-crowned 
kinglet that stayed for two weeks fluttering in front of the window, flirting, 
I believe, with his reflection. The greenish yellow of his feathers and sud- 
denly the brilliant ruby crown, with the background of yellow forsythia, 
was a picture we will never forget. 
1600 Albion Ave., Park Ridge, Illinois 
