From Stamford we hear that many birds
have lieen kept around all winter bv teach-
Ing tlie children and others to feed the
birds, placing pieces of suet and seed boxes
on the trees.
In Hartford our local secretary has, by
her bird talks in the public schools, fasci-
nated the chiklren and gained us 395 new
junior members. On Bird Day she spoke
in seven schools.
In Westport the local secretary held bird
talks around the cages of the village store,
where a Barrel Owl, two Screech Owls and a
Chicken Hawk, a Coon and two flying squir-
rels were on exhibition and well cared for.
The Bird Day program which the Ex-
ecutive Committee arranged this year was
printed and sent out by the Board of Edu-
cation. The Society has sent ^20 to the
Thayer fund for the keeping of wardens on
the shore to protect our Gulls and Terns, a
much -needed work.
We feel sure that the Audubon Societies,
having made themselves a power, are now
accomplishing the desired results. But our
work is not done, only begun. It must be
continued, or our past work will be lost in
a few years. We must keep our sentinels
on the watch, or the milliners will think we
are sleeping and plumage come into vogue
again.
This year we ask for an increased interest
among the school children. Quoting from
another one of our workers: "The good
resulting from the work of the Society
among children will not end merely in the
protection of our feathered friends, nor in
the pleasure their presence gives to admirers
of fleeting grace and beauty and to lovers of
bird song, nor even with the practical side,
the benefit to the farmer in saving his crops
from the devastation of insects. The effect
upon the children themselves will be salu-
tary. Who will question the trutii of the
statement that the perceptions will be quick-
ened by studying and enjoying this form of
outdoor life ? The rousing of the finer
sensibilities of the children by teaching
them to guard the welfare of those inno-
cent, and, in a way, defenseless creatures,
formed by the same wisdom and love that
endowed us, His highest creation, with life,
can but have a refining tendency upon the
characters of those we are striving to train
to noble manhood and womanhood."
Helen W. Glover, Secretary.
Library Report. — A special feature of
the Connecticut Audubon Society during
this last year, and one to which we attach
much importance, has been the distribution
of its libraries through the Connecticut
Public Library Committee.
Beginning this work a little more than a
year ago, with about one hundred books as
a nucleus, their constant circulation, and
the appreciation with which they have been
received, are evidences of their popularity.
When it is known that the libraries are
sent out to schools where the children and
often the teachers have no other opportunity
of obtaining books, it will be readily under-
stood how gladly they are welcomed.
The children not only acquire a love for
reading but they learn the names of the
■'green and growing" things in their woods
and gardens, to know the interesting habits
of animals, and to care for and protect our
birds.
One teacher writes of going to the woods
with the children and sends a list of uncom-
mon wild flowers they have found with the
aid of Mrs. Dana's "How to Know the
Wild Flowers." Another tells of the inter-
est with which her scholars have listened to
Seton-Thompson's "Wild Animals I Have
Known," and to Mrs. Wright's "Four-
footed Americans," as she has read and re-
read them to her classes. One writes of
Library No. 7, The Olive Thorne Miller
Library :
"After reading these books I noticed that
the children grew very fond of watching the
birds and their nests. Every noon they
would take their dinners and go off into the
woods near bj' to see the birds. When they
returned they were eager to tell the many
interesting things they had noticed. They
found a number of new nests and visited
them every day, watching anxiously for the
time when the young birds should be
hatched."
Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/197
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