Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/197

 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."