THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 
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A Call to Action 
By C. W. G. Errric 
President, Illinois Audubon Society 
Is the Illinois Audubon Society doing as much good as it might? 
Are we as active and efficient as we ought to be? Not if we compare our 
activity with that of others who have similar aims as we have. ‘Take, for 
instance, the Izaak Walton League. Their monthly organ continually 
reports onslaughts on the forces that would destroy our national heritage, 
our woods, rivers, lakes, and their inhabitants. In one place they open a 
fish hatchery for restocking the streams and lakes of the vicinity with fish 
(even though they want to catch them later on). In another place they 
succeed in saving a delightful, scenic spot from the despoiler, to have it 
made into a park or preserve of some kind. When necessary they work 
together with politicians to achieve their aims, and often they oppose and 
thwart them in some form of outdoor spoliation. 
Let us learn from them. Let each member, wherever in the state he 
or she may be, look around for opportunities of doing a good turn for 
bird protection, whether alone or in league with similarly minded people. 
The sportsmen’s organizations work overtime for the protection and 
propagation of birds, but only of such species that they want to hunt. 
‘They sometimes act as though other forms of wild life other than game 
birds and game animals hardly had any right to exist. hey are almost 
feverishly active to introduce foreign game birds, even though these com- 
pete with, crowd out, and even destroy our native splendid wild fowl. 
Let us learn from them. If they get in touch with politicians and 
legislators to further their own selfish or commendable ends, why not we? 
I would like to point out a few immediate objectives that we should try to 
attain before it is too late: 
1. A closed season for the prairie chicken. ‘This splendid natural 
monument, so plentiful when the pioneers first came into the state, and 
for years after, is in a sad way. Fifteen to twenty years ago it could still be 
found in certain spots within the city limits of Chicago, and many more 
within a radius of ten to twenty miles. Now these have all practically 
disappeared. “The blame is to be put on the introduced ring-necked 
pheasant and the indiscriminate selling of thousands of hunting licenses. 
‘There are among our legislators lovers of the great outdoors and particu- 
larly of the birds. Will not one of them draw up and present to the 
legislature a law protecting the prairie chicken permanently or at least 
for ten years? And if a provision could be included to somehow limit the 
activity of the hunting-license grist mill it would be a splendid thing. 
