270 Bird - Lore tection of our wild or Band-tailed Pigeon. This should be brought about immediately before this bird of the West follows the Passenger Pigeon of the East and becomes almost extinct. This bird, although one of our best game-birds, has not even the protection of the game laws. Hunters slaughter great numbers of the birds in the midst of the breeding season, when fully developed eggs are still in the bodies, and when the birds have young. In the midst of the breeding season, when the weather is hot, it is a habit of these birds to come from miles and gather about some watering-place to drink. It is a custom among many hunters to lie hidden at such places and shoot the birds as they come and go. Here it is no trick to kill a hundred Pigeons in a short time, and leave perhaps as many young birds to starve in the nest." — Dr. Emma J. WELTY, Corresponding Secretary. Pennsylvania. — "The Pennsylvania Audubon Society has suffered an irretrievable loss during the year in the death of its secretary, Mrs. Edward Robins. It has been impossible as yet to arrange for the continuance of the work of the Society, but steps toward this will be taken early in the autumn. Mrs. Robins' illness during the early part of the year prevented any new de- partures in the activities of the Society, and our work was simply that of enrolling members, distributing literature and answering correspondence relative to bird protection and bird study." — WlTMER Stone, President. Western Pennsylvania. — " The Western Pennsylvania Audubon So- ciety was organized in March, 1904, and has since made good progress. Its membership this year has increased from 49 to 262 and is chiefly devoted to impressing the younger generation with a sense of the value of bird-life. The giving of Audubon buttons to school children has aroused their interest in the Society's work, because they want to know "Why?" The Society's membership includes police and press officials who are personally interested in its welfare, hence the repression of illegitimate shooting and the full pub- licity of prosecutions for such offences. The Society publishes suitable literature in prose and poetry, and encloses copies of its selections in com- munications to outsiders. Meetings are held the second Wednesday in each month and are at- tended mostly by ladies who have the time, means and desire for furthering the bird cause. They denounce bird millinery. This year the Society has caused to be erected a number of Wren and Martin houses, also many cocoanut nests. The Society has secured the cooperation of the local gun club in protecting wild birds, and members of the latter occasionally attend the monthly meetings. ' The burgess of Wilkinsburg is in sympathy with the movement and grants the Society the free use of the borough police court, now its estab- lished headquarters. Mr. C. Leon Brumbaugh, president of the Burroughs
