Bird lore - Project Puffin

Birds Beautifying Cemeteries
Some time ago, the Secretary happened
to visit a suburban cemetery,
where landscape-gardening and sculptural
art had done what they could to make the
scene beautiful and comforting, but he
was impressed by the absence of singing
birds. Alien Sparrows were chattering,
and the gurgling of a Crackle was heard
in the distance, but none of the sweet
voices and pretty forms of the native
birds charmed the ear or gladdened the
eye of a visitor. This seemed strange, for
the varied trees and shrubbery, with
sunny spaces among them, quiet and
guarded against noisy intrusion, would be
excee^lingly attractive and favorable to
bird-life; and it occurred to him that in
no place would an invitation to the birds
to make themselves at home in summer
be so likely to be accepted; nor could
anything be more appropriate than their
cheerful presence. They will prove useful,
too.
These thoughts induced him to write a
brief essay, entitled "Cemeteries as Bird-
Sanctuaries," which has been published
by the National Association as Circular
No. 2, and distributed to many persons
likely to be interested. The response has
been most encouraging. Associations and
individuals all over the country have
written for this circular, and are taking
measures to furnish cemeteries with
shelters, nesting-boxes and feeding-sta-
tions for birds under instruction from the
.\ssociation. The great Forest Lawn
Cemetery near Omaha, for example, is
putting up 100 nest-boxes as a beginning.
The Rosehill Cemetery and others about
Chicago are undertaking similar enter-
prises, and the Cemetery Beautifying
Association of San Francisco is plan-
ning this addition to its methods of
making more attractive the resting-place
of the dead. Blue Bird announces that the
Lake View Cemetery at Cleveland, Ohio,
will erect manj' feeding-tables and nest-
boxes, in its grounds. The matter has been
The Audubon Societies 149
NOTES FROM THE FIELD
taken up by the Lexington Kentucky
Audubon Society. Other instances might
be mentioned.
It is greatly to be hoped that many
others will follow their example. The
movement we think is worth while, for the
sake of humanity as well as for the birds.
The Oregon Audubon Society
The Oregon .\udubon Society has
recently established headquarters in the
Young Men's Christian Association building,
in Portland. The room occupied by
the Society has been tastefully decorated
with pictures, and contains cabinets of
specimens for study. It is planned to give
lectures regularly on Saturday evenings.
Mr. William L. Finley, President of the
Society, and the Pacific Coast field-agent
for the National Association, in company
with Mrs. Finley, has this spring been
spending several weeks in the East, where
he has been constantly engaged in giving
lectures illustrated with moving pictures
of sea-birds. Sage Grouse, sea-lions, cou-
gars, black bears, antelopes, and other
interesting forms of western wild life.
Work Along Columbia River
The Federation of Women's Clubs in
the State of Washington has been notable
among such organizations for that practical
interest in bird-life which arises from
an appreciation of their usefulness as well
as their beauty. It has recently testified
to this most substantially by becoming a
member of this Association. Last year,
and to a less extent in the previous year,
the Federation was represented largely at
the State Fair by an exhibition that was
called the "Bird Court," in which all sorts
of ornithological things were displayed to
great advantage. The success of these
exhibitions was due largely to the wisdom
and energy of Mrs. G. R. Pike, of North
Yakima, who has been indefatigable in
her efforts to spread the study of birds in
the schools. She has been traveling and