State Reports 273 of the seasons, and the Audubon movement is changing the state from a vast slaughter field of avian and mammalian life to a grand preserve the like of which probably, when the ideal has been attained, will not be found else- where on the face of the globe. One item, and a very important one, too, was the successful effort to prevent the slaughter of Robins, that resort here in millions annually to feed on the rich harvest of winter berries, growing mute and fat, and, until the Audubon Societies called a halt;, were slaughtered by thousands for household consumption and for the market. A reformed market hunter told me that it had been his practice to encourage men and boys to make nocturnal visits to Robin roosts, such as thickets and cedar brakes, for the purpose of filling sacks with the bodies of the charm- ing birds, having succeeded in the winter of 1902-3 in supplying 10,000 dozen Robins to the hotels and restaurants of the cities o"f Texas and adjacent states. By our efforts we have already reduced Robin slaughter 80 per cent, and we intend to stop it altogether during the approaching winter, when the lovely migrants return. "The Texas Audubon Society has enlisted the women's clubs, the educators, the newspapers and periodicals and the railway companies in the noble cause of protection, and is now at work disarming the school boys of
- niggershooters ' and target guns, at the same time teaching, by lantern
lectures, newspaper articles and distribution of literature, the evils of de- struction, the inexpressible merit of preservation. The literature we have been distributing was derived from the National Association of Audubon Societies and from the United States Department of Agriculture. Probably 5,000 Audubon leaflets and an equal number of department bulletins and reports have, through our agency, been placed in the hands of the appreci- ative people of Texas, and in due time this mighty state will become equal to any of the sisterhood as to bird and animal protection. Such will be the case when the high standard we aim at has been attained. " In 1903, prior to the existence of our organization as a state body, the chief workers who belonged to local organizations, and who now constitute the backbone of the state Society, secured the enactment of the Texas Bird and Game Law, with its superb provisions, above all others the section pro- hibiting marketing of birds and game, and transportation for market by the express and railroad companies, giving us the complete benefit of federal laws and reinforcing the state authorities with the powerful arm of the National government in the suppression of those arch annihilators — the pot- hunters. When the Legislature met in 1904, the market hunters were at Austin, the state capital, with a strong lobby, seeking the repeal, if possible, or at least the adoption of a weakening amendment of the tenth section, which section of the Texas Bird and Game Law prevents, under penalty, marketing and transportation, and, therefore, puts the pot-hunter out of business. The Texas Audubon Society, then only four months in existence,
