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Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/196

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The Audubon Societies
181


the state are prohibited. The sale of these birds is prohibited at all times." That these laws are the outcome of a popular reaction there is no doubt any more than that the reaction was started by the various protective associations, both Fed- eral and State, chief among which stand the protective committee of the A. O. U., the League of American Sportsmen and the State Audubon Societies. To gain an adequate idea of the number and scope of the various state and local societies formed for bird and game protection, we wish every one would read the list, p. 664-671, in the "Year Book" of the U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture for 1900. Everywhere in these laws is the strength of cooperation visible, a cooperation that should be also applied to the work of the Audubon Societies more especially in rela- tion to their published material than in their individual methods, which must neces- sarily be local and specialized. — M. O. W. SECOND ANNUAL AUDUBON CONFERENCE The Second Annual Conference of the Audubon Societies will convene at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, November 14, 1901, under the auspices of the Audubon Society of New York State, which extends to the members of all Audubon Societies a cordial invitation to attencl the pulilic meeting of the Societies on the afternoon of the day above named. REPORT OF CONNECTICUT SOCIETY iPresentfd at thr I-nurth Annual Merting. held at Stam- ford, May 2S. IQOl) During the past year the Executive Com- tnittee has held nine meetings" to transact the business of the Society. Part of our work has been the purchase of more books for our traveling libraries, to which we have added four ^l■t^ of eieeii books each. We are much encourageil liy the reports of the educational work these libraries are doing in the schools and vil- lages where they are circulated. We have also purchased from the Massa- chusetts Audubon Society sets of colored iiird charts, which show the conunon birds of New England. These charts we send to our local secretaries for their use in schools or bird classes, or to the schools themselves. We have felt much encouraged by the spe- cial interest which our State Board of Edu- cation has shown in our work through its secretary, Mr. C. D. Hine. It now has charge of our lecture outfits, our trav- eling libraries and most of our charts, and our desire is to purchase more of these materials which they utilize so well, as we think the Board of Education can extend this branch of work better than we can. Our membership this year has been in- creased by 4 sustaining members, 45 regular members, 46 teachers, 828 junior members and 642 associate members, making a total of 1,565 new members. I have had most interesting reports from twenty-three of our local secretaries, showing what excellent work they are doing in the towns of Nor- walk, Stamford, South Woodstock, Middle- town, Norwich, North Woodbury, Water- town, Cjranby, Scotland, New Canaan, Enfield, Bristol, Stratford, Bridgeport, Wethersfield, New Milford, Redding, Haddam, Madison, Willimantic, Hartford, Westport and Woodbridge. The local secretaries form bird classes, or speak to the children in the schools and interest them in bird protection, and, as one wrote to me, "call the children's atten- tion to the birds," as often people live all their lives among birds and hardly see them or iiear them, because no one has "called their attention" to them, and the children continue thoughtlessly to stone birds and rob their nests, because no one has spoken a few simple words that will touch their hearts. Another one writes: The children have had their eyes opened at last, and they are alive to the fact that it pays to protect the birds. In another school the children made a chart of tiicir own from sets of colored birds sent out by some insurance companv ns an advertisement, and being their own work, this chart is particidarly enjoyable to them. One town, Madison, had six sets of our bird charts at one time. In some towns a bird caUiuiar is kept, giving the date of seeing the bird, its name, name of observer and place.