the calendar by a member of the society; the originals are painted in water colors on Japanese rice paper, and are very artistic bird portraits. The same artist is now at work on drawings of new birds for a calendar for 1900, which the directors hope will be reproduced by a more accurate and satisfactory process.
The Bird Chart of colored drawings of twenty-six common birds, which the Directors undertook last spring, is now ready. The drawings have all been especially made for the chart by E. Knobel and are reproduced by the Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Co. , on twelve stones. Some of our best ornithologists have seen the color proof and pronounce it good. The society has published a descriptive pamphlet to accompany the chart which has been prepared by Ralph Hoffman. His sketches of the birds are delightfully written, and the book is valuable in itself.[1]
The Directors have recently sent out a new circular mainly in Boston and vicinity which briefly describes the work undertaken and asks for further cooperation from interested persons, and states that “in addition to our first object, the support of other measures of importance for the further protection of our native birds has been assumed by the Society. Among such measures may be mentioned:
1. Circulation of literature.
2. Improved legislation in regard to the killing of birds, and the better enforcement of present laws.
3. Protection during the season for certain breeding places of Gulls, Herons and other birds, which, without such protection will soon be exterminated.
4. Educational measures. This includes the publication of colored wall charts of birds, Audubon Calendars and other helps to bird study.
The response to this circular has been gratifying. The society now numbers over twenty-four hundred persons, twenty-six of these are Life Associates, having paid twenty-five dollars at one time; four hundred and seventy-five are Associates, paying one dollar annually; the remaining are Life Members, having paid twenty-five cents. While the rage for feather decoration is unabated, we feel that there is steadily growing a sentiment among our best people in condemnation of the custom. There is a noticeable decrease in the use of aigrettes and of our native birds, excepting the Terns and the plumage of the Owl; and a marked increase in the employment of the wings and feathers of the barnyard fowl. While the latter continue to feed the fashion they are harmless in themselves.
THE RHODE ISLAND SOCIETY
The Audubon Society of Rhode Island was organized in October, 1897, and has now about 350 members.
The purposes of the society, according to its by-laws, are: the promotion of an interest in bird-life, the encouragement of the study of ornithology, and the protection of wild birds and their eggs. Some work has been done in the schools, abstracts of the state laws relating to birds have been circulated throughout the state, lectures have been given, and a traveling library has been purchased for the use of the branch societies.
Nearly five thousand circulars of various kinds have been distributed, and it is evident that the principles of the society are becoming well known and are exerting an influence, even in that difficult branch of Audubon work, the millinery crusade. Annie M. Grant, Sec′y.
THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY
A score of ladies met in Fairfield on January 28, i8g8, and formed “The Audubon Society of the State of Connecticut.” Mrs. James Osborne Wright was chosen president and an executive committee provisionally elected, representing so far as possible at the beginning, the State of Connecticut.
An effort was made to find every school district in the state, and a Bird-Day pro-
- ↑ See note on this chart and pamphlet in Book News and Reviews.
