Bird lore - Project Puffin

Reports of Field Agents 437
were given by your agent during the past year before the Minnesota Game
Protective League, American Society for the Extension of University Teaching,
Ogontz School, National Geographic Society, Columbia University, American
Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Institute, Vermont Game Protective
League, Springfield Fish and Game Association, Fairbanks Museum of Natural
Sciences, Twentieth Century Club of Cleveland, National Conference for
American Game Breeding held under the auspices of the American Game
Protective Association, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and other clubs
and organizations.
REPORT OF HERBERT K. JOB, DEPARTMENT OF
APPLIED ORNITHOLOGY
In response to a large and growing demand for practical assistance and
instruction, this Department was formally instituted on August i, 19 14. In
taking this action the Association decided to foster a nation-wide movement
for popularizing direct, practical measures for the increase of wild bird-life,
and for propagating game-birds and wild water-fowl. Previous experience had
shown that to meet the flood of questions continually asked, practical informa-
tion must be provided for general distribution. Therefore bulletins on the
propagation of game-birds, and of wild water-fowl, were speedily prepared and
published in large editions. Moreover, in order to present the entire subject
in a concise form, and to provide a textbook for the Department, a manual of
applied ornithology, entitled 'Propagation of Wild Birds,' was written and
placed on the market.
Personal assistance has been furnished to many individuals and organiza-
tions, and interest in attracting birds to come and remain about the place has
been widely stimulated, both through personal inspections and by a large
volume of correspondence. On the estate of U. S. Senator George P. McLean,
Simsbury, Connecticut, nesting-boxes were put up by the Department, which
have been largely occupied during two seasons. The estate of Otto H. Kahn,
Coldspring Harbor, Long Island, was supervised for this purpose. During the
winter a surprising number of small birds and some Quails were fed, requiring
more than 150 pounds of seed-mixture, besides much suet. The nesting-boxes
erected there were mostly occupied. Nesting-boxes were also set up on the
grounds of the Biological Laboratory in the same town. Edmund C. Converse
was assisted on his estate at Greenwich, Connecticut, in attracting birds and
in breeding wild ducks. His interest and enthusiasm were so developed that
he has now employed an expert to devote his whole time to making his great
estate a wild-bird paradise. The Tarrytown, New York, estate of William
Rockefeller has received constant attention from the Department. Near
Philadelphia, on the estate of Alfred C.Harrison, a colony of Purple Martins has
been established, and other occupants of nesting-boxes. Inspections have