The Audubon Societies 7r
first, which is to be the entering wedge, must be as popular in scope as it is consist— ant with accuracy and the dignity that should always be a part of Audubon work if it is to escape the ridicule of many who are always waiting opportunities to accord it.
Only the most familiar birds of the la- cality should he treated, in order to make the subject a part of every-day life and in every way intimate. Scissors and paste se- lections and mere detailed descriptions of birds repel even it they chance to catch the ear of the listener,7rhe pictures should be allowed to speak for themselves and the text be a skilfully woven narrative to keep the bird portraits and the View: of their haunts and homes in unison, For there is always one thing to hear in mind in com. posing the text of a lecture to be read by every one and cverywhere,~the author is not the speaker.
When a lecture is spoken or even read by its author, he, it he is worth listening to, paints a picture by color of tone and expression. touches lightly on the unim- portant and lingers over that which is appealing. But the free circulating lecture appears in text of cold type; it is usually read by some one who may not have bad the time to even glance it through by way at preparation, and who is also perhaps handicapped by an equally inexperienced man at the lantern, who keeps the subject and illustrations at odds by misplacing the slides and inserting the Great Blue Heron in place ot the Hummingbird: so if the thought of the lecture be as liteless as the type that expresses it, it has no reason for being.
instead of saying, as many havei‘VXnya thing will do for a tree lecture; it is going among a people who know nothing”—I hold that the writing of such a work is among the most difficult bits of bird literature, [or it is akin to writing a ser- mon that shall both read anti speak well, and we all know how few of the best specimens of oratorical art will bear this ‘CSL
Given your text, then cotues the ditliculty of gathering a well-colored set of from fifty
to seventy slides of birds, etc., for i ‘ illus» trations, though this is an easier matter than four years ago, when bird photography was a new art. Yet still another note of warning. For this first lecture. to have onlythc most distinct and individ- ual bird pictures, with little background, after Fuertes' method, a style for which the late Dr. Cones was a fighting champion and rightly. the haunts to be given upon separate slides.
The bird photographed in its haunt by an expert is of great beauty and value to the student or naturealover, but it is apt to be inadequate and couiusing to those in the kindergarten stage of identification The novice is more attracted by the picture of even a ridiculously fat Bluebird perched on a fence-rail than in a shadow dodging
is wise
about a telegraph pole, which he is in~ formed by the taker is a Bluebird leaving its hole. We have many bird photog» raphers whose work is simply marvelous, but their pictures are seldom accessible for the free lecture, anti in bird photography the next grade below the best produces guessing pictures more complicated than the prize puzzles in the Sunday papers.
Iwas recently uttered ‘a hargain' in the way of photographs ' from nature' to illus- trate school work. The slides came to tire numbered, but ahead of the list nf subjects. I tried to name them. nebulous; one, however, 1 plated beyond doubt: it seemed to be the shadowy form of a skunk in the grass, with his plumy tail imagine my tetl— ings when, on comparing the number with the list,I found it markedi‘ Meadow Lark rising from nest 'l
Most of them were
outlined against the sky.
If our model, the Massachusetts Society, allows such a use. I would suggest that if photographed separately the birds from its valuable charts would, supplemented by seasonal landscapes, make an excellent set of slides for the first lecture at any society unable to pay for specially picturest
Having your lecture, slides and a good
designed
oil or acetylene lantern (the best will he cranky enough) packed in a strong. metal— cornered box, the final move is to select a
