ike wt Dw BRON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
eee NeO le me Arb ULB Orn. 5,0 Glen Tay: 
ROOSEVELT ROAD AND LAKE SHORE DRIVE, CHICAGO 5, ILL. 
Number 82 June, 1952 
The President’s Page 
By Harry R. SMITH 
THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVES of the Illinois Audubon Society are the advance- 
ment of conservation and nature study, with particular emphasis on our 
native birds. Our membership in the Society indicates our approval of 
these objectives, but what are we doing as individual members to en- 
courage sound conservation measures and intelligent nature study pro- 
jects? Unfortunately, few of us are interested enough to think of them 
as our personal responsibility and give them the consideration we should. 
Each year we are asked to supply a dozen leaders for bird walks in the 
Chicago Park System, but it is difficult to get half this number. We ex- 
press our indignation at the slaughter of migrating night hawks by the 
“sportsman” at Calumet Lake; we complain about Alaska Territory pay- 
ing a bounty to the killers of the noble bald eagle and we scream at the 
threat of destruction of Dinosaur National Monument, but few of us make 
any definite effort to prevent such wanton acts. 
Our common excuse is that we “do not have the time,” but none of us 
is so busy that we could not take ten minutes to write an occasional letter. 
Our Board of Directors continually votes to have the Secretary write 
letters approving or protesting various projects when a dozen letters from 
individual members would be much more effective. 
These individual expressions of our opinions do get results, whether 
they are sent to Congressmen, state legislators, or to newspapers. When 
a self-styled naturalist, known for his misinformation and his ridicule of 
amateur bird students, started a “nature” column in a newspaper, several 
of our members protested to the editor and the column had a short life. 
On the other hand, a splendid series cf nature notes by Donald Culross 
Peattie appearing in a Chicago paper some years ago was discontinued fot 
lack of interest. We would, therefore, be wise to write the Chicago Tribune 
and commend it for the instructive, educational articles it is now running 
under the title of ‘““‘Watching the Birds.” The author of this series, by the 
way, is Mrs. Anne Douglas Bayless, one of our Board of Directors. 
When we see a picture of a brave gunner with the beautiful, beneficial 
red-tailed hawk he has killed, we should write our Conservation Depart- 
ment and inquire about the steps it is taking to prosecute for the illegal 
shooting. When we read of the continuous political pressure to plunder 
our national parks and forests, we should protest to our Congressmen and 
Senators. 
Due to the interest of the voters in most of our neighboring states, 
the mourning dove has been placed on their protected list. It has been 
Cay} 
