Bird lore - Project Puffin

448
—
Bird - Lore
The Society also conducted a series of five illustrated lectures at Tremont
Temple, in Boston, on Saturday afternoons in March. At least 1,500 people
attended each of these lectures, which were illustrated with stereopticon and
moving pictures. The lecturers were Howard H. Cleaves, of New York; Prof.
Wells W. Cooke, of Washington; William L. Finley, of Oregon; and Louis
Agassiz Fuertes, of Ithaca, N. Y.
Again at the annual mass meeting, held in Tremont Temple, 1,500 people
gathered to listen to reports of the work of the Society, another lecture by
Mr. Job, and bird-imitations by Charles C. Gorst. In addition, the secretary
has given lectures, to the number of sixty, all over the state before various
organizations, including many large school gatherings, on bird-protection and
the work of the State and National Audubon Societies.
The Society investigated, during the year, the conditions at the various
lighthouses along the New England coast, fearing the great destruction to
bird-life which occurs in migration time at some lights. It is glad to state that
the lighthouse keepers reported no such destruction here. Dr. George W. Field,
the well-known biologist, offered the use of his large estate at Moose Hill,
Sharon, Mass., for a model bird-sanctuary, and the Society plans to so use the
estate, which is admirably adapted to the purpose. As the winter came on, the
Society joined with the National Association in placarding New England with
the request that people feed the birds. The response was immediate and most
effective. The Society prints, and distributes free, cloth posters for posting
land against shooting; and more than 2,000 were used last year.
Local legislation has been carefully looked after and some bad bills were
defeated. An active part was taken in Federal legislation. The secretary
beUeves that the iniquitous proposal to give a month's spring-shooting of
water-fowl in the Southwest was defeated largely through the organized efforts
of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. It entered vigorously into the cam-
paign that led up to the enactment of the treaty with Canada, in which the
two countries join in protecting the migratory birds.
In these and many other matters, the influence of the Society extends far
beyond the borders of the state. Its artistic Calendars and educational Charts,
for instance, have found sale this past year in nearly every state in the Union
and in Canada, and the secretary feels that in many ways, besides its work for
the state, the Massachusetts Audubon Society's influence has been a help to
that broader, greater work of national scope so well done by the National
Association. Winihrop Packard, Secretary.
Michigan Audubon Society.—A large amount of work was planned by
the officers of the Michigan Audubon Society for 19 16; but when in January
the president met with a serious accident, the effects of which confined her to
her couch for four months, and the secretary found it impossible to be away
from home for any length of time, the plans for active field-work had to be