Brookline Bird Club

The Brookline, Massachusetts, Bird Club was organized in June, 1913, at a meeting of a handful of people held in the Public Library. It was found, upon inquiry, that there were many residents of the town, both adults and minors, who were interested in the study and preservation of birds, and others who only needed an incentive to become thoroughly fascinated by the subject.

It was further discovered that, while nature-study is taught in the elementary grades of the public schools, the study of birds is almost optional with the teachers, and it remains with them whether or not their efforts are more than superficial. Instructors who are not interested in a subject do not interest their pupils. Brookline has grown with such rapidity during the last ten years that it is no longer a small town of fine residences and large estates. The ornithologist, aside from the fine park system, must now go further into the country to find the rarer birds, and few people know where to go. It was thus necessary, not only to arouse and enthuse, but to lead them to the proper parts of the surrounding country, where the opportunities for becoming acquainted with many species are exceptionally good. The forestry department of the town, than which there is none more efficient in the state, has done fine work under Supt. Daniel Lacey in exterminating many varieties of insect pests. This department also feeds the birds in winter, has put up some four hundred nestingboxes in different parts of the town, and, after studying the subject carefully, has came to the very logical conclusion that the birds must be protected and encouraged to live in the town if the fight against the insects is to be successful.

The coöperation of this department with the Bird Club has become of much

mutual benefit. At the organization meeting, a tentative plan was agreed upon, and the drawing up of a constitution was intrusted to a small committee. A second meeting was held, the constitution adopted, officers elected, and the club launched. Permission was granted by the trustees of the Public Library for the use of a large room by the new association, bulletin space was given, books on ornithology were bought and set aside for special use, and the privilege of having mail sent there was agreed upon. Publicity was given freely in both of the local papers and the Boston press, so that many applications for membership came from unexpected quarters. At the close of the first year, 500 names are on the membership book. The officers are five in number, president, vice-president, secretary, corresponding secretary, and treasurer. There are seventeen directors, including the officers. The Club has four classes of membership: Life, Sustaining, Senior, and Junior. Life membership is obtained by the payment of ten dollars, and this exempts the payer from further dues. Sustaining membership requires a subscription of five dollars, and the subscriber is not called upon for the yearly fee. Senior members must be over fourteen years of age, and contribute 50 cents per year. Those under 14 years of age are juniors and are charged 25 cents per annum.

The membership dues were placed as low as possible, in order that no one should find the amount burdensome, and that all should receive as much as could be given for the lowest fee.

Walks for senior members were arranged Saturday afternoons, and bulletins giving the date, place, leader, carfare, and and general information, were mailed to each member. These walks were so successful that, another year, two separate walks will be scheduled each Saturday, to accommodate the large numbers that

enjoy them. In the morning of the days on which the senior walks are held the junior walks are listed. Mr. Horace Taylor, who conducts the junior department, gives the children a short illustrated talk about the birds that are expected to be seen on the walk. This talk is given on the afternoon before the walk is taken. The children keep notebooks and their lists of birds, make colored pictures and nesting-boxes, and compete in many ways for small prizes. Where the distance requires the use of the electric cars, a special car is hired. The children average from fifty to seventy-five in number on these little excursions.

One of the most encouraging features of the work is the interest and enthusiasm of the Junior department. The meetings of the Club are held once a month in the club-room at the Library, and consist of a short business meeting, preceding an informal talk or lecture on some phase of bird-study. Mr. Edward Howe Forbush, Mr. Winthrop Packard, and Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes are among those who have addressed the organization during this last year.

The activity of the club was marked with such success from the start that the directors decided to undertake an educational movement on a larger scale. Acting in coöperation with the Forestry Department of the town upon an idea originating with the Milton (Mass.) Bird Club, an exhibition was planned of everything pertaining to the study, conservation, and attracting of wild birds. This exhibition was held in the Public Library.

Through the large room ran an arborway, constructed of the limbs of trees with the bark on. To the arbor were attached all kinds of nesting-, feeding-, and shelterboxes, and wire racks for holding grain and suet. On long tables on the right of the room were baths of varied construction and size, and large feeding-boxes. Hanging on the wall were samples of the birdwork done by the children in the schools. On the left of the arborway were stuffed specimens of native birds. Some were borrowed from the Fish and Game Com

mission, and others were loaned from private collections of the president, Mr. Edward W. Baker. A number of his specimens were mounted on the nestingboxes and limbs of the trees through the arbor, which was particularly pleasing and well represented real bird-life. Another table held a complete exhibit of seeds and berries that our local winter birds feed upon. These were placed in glass jars, giving the name of each, where they could be purchased, and the price. At the rear was a display of the Forestry Department, showing the work of destructive insects, particularly the leopard moth and elm-tree beetle, and illustrating most vividly the necessity of attracting the birds to destroy them. Cases were set up containing specimens of the birds that eat the gypsy and brown-tail moths; others showed the moths in various stages of growth. Pictures of all kinds including a number of originals of Louis Agassiz Fuertes, books, pamphlets, eggs, nests, photographs, charts, and in fact everything bearing on the subject could be found in the room. The exhibition was open for one month from 2 to 9 o'clock P. M., and 3,800 visitors signed the registration book; many others, particularly children, attended. In the morning, the room was open to classes of school children with their teachers.

At the close, the exhibition was loaned to the Lynn and Nahant Bird Clubs, and when it is returned will be made into a permanent exhibit. Each day, a member of the Forestry Department and two members of the Bird Club were in attendance, to answer questions and explain. By a recent act of the state legislature, each town or city is entitled to a bird warden. At the last annual town meeting, Superintendent Lacey, of the Forestry Department, was appointed warden for the town of Brookline. The Bird Club has its own bird warden. We look forward to a more successful and busier year. Walks, lectures, and another exhibit are all planned already, and we intend to keep Brookline foremost in the list of those towns and cities that are working for the interest of

the birds. CHARLES B. FLOYD, Vicepresident, Brookline, Mass.

Martins and Other Birds at Greens

Farms, Connecticut

We banished the cat and the English Sparrows, and had more birds nesting about the home grounds than we had last year.

Wrens occupied four of the five boxes put up, and their music encircled the house. There were three nests of Robins, one on the lintel of the front door, close against the glass transom. The Kingbird nested for the third season in the same pear tree, and the Brown Thrasher in the syringa in the garden. When I looked into the Thrashers' nest after the eggs hatched, the mother bird dived off a tree branch overhead and struck me fairly in the back of the neck. The young Thrashers spent a good deal of time on the lawn close to the house, and there was no cat to alarm them.

One of the old Robins got the habit of pecking early and late at its reflection in the glass of the cellar window, which is on a level with the lawn. We finally tilted the window to stop the continual pecking.

Many Night Herons passed morning and evening between their roost in the woods across the road to the salt marsh opposite. Their flight-calls were usually answered in chorus by our Canada Geese.

One morning, two Kingfishers came flying up the road with such noisy cries that I rushed to the window. One of them darted around the house and fell exhausted on the lawn, while the pursuing bird passed over the house and disappeared. The fugitive remained on the lawn while I finished dressing, and did not leave until I tried to get close enough to see whether it was a male or a female. I suspect that it was a male, being chased by another male.

Barn Swallows occupied the barn, and Chimney Swifts the chimney. Keeping one of the barn doors propped open all day encourages the Swallows. The Bluebirds used only one of the two boxes put

up; the first pair was discouraged by Sparrows.

Best of all, we had half-a-dozen pairs of Martins. Last year, they left without nesting, as the Sparrows held the Martin house against all comers. By diligent use of the long-barreled, dust-shot pistol, in April, I banished the Sparrows for the summer and the pleasant gurglings of the Martins paid many times for the trouble of fighting the Sparrows.

In this region, the holes of Martin houses must be large enough to let Martins in and keep Starlings out; but the Martins will not enter a one-and-seveneighths-inch hole unless there is a halfinch hole just above it, to let in light. The Martin's body in the small entrance makes the compartment dark, and the bird seems afraid to enter. After the halfinch windows were bored, they entered freely. I expected the Kingbirds close by to make trouble for the Martins, but was happily disappointed.

Next spring, we will have another and larger Martin house, and keep the dustshot pistol handy for Sparrow invaders. It makes little noise, does not seem to frighten Wrens, Bluebirds, or Swallows, and the Martins pay no attention to it. The shotgun makes too much noise and alarms all birds. I know of nothing that will banish Sparrows as effectively as the shot-pistol.

Get rid of the home-cat! One bottle of Pasteur Rat Virus every four months will clear out rats and mice better than a dozen cats. We have demonstrated that to the satisfaction of the neighbors, which is more than was expected.-CHARLES H. TOWNSEND, Greens Farms, Conn.

Food for the Birds

Here is an example of what can be accomplished by throwing out food to the birds.

In the storm of April 16, 1914, when it snowed in central New Hampshire to the depth of four inches, we swept a spot of ground about twelve feet square, every little while, and strewed cracked corn, or