News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1908-06-17
CHILDREN TO AID THE BIRDS.
A School Army Enlisting to Save
the Guardians of Crops.

A School Army Enlisting to Save
the Guardians of Crops.
On the millions of school children
in this country final hope of averting
the extinction of the valuable insect
ivorous birds has been rested
What the Federal Government, the
State Legislatures, and even the
oranges, women's clubs or national
commercial organizations have failed
to accomplish completely, the Ma
tional Association of Audubon socie-
ties have announced will be now CIV
en- to the children of the land to
bring about To organize every body
of pupils from the largest New York
| public school to the most remote dis
trict school OF the Pacific coast, into
general movement for housing,
| feeding and protecting the wild birds
THAT save the country's crops is the
| Object of the Audubon workers.
General headquarters for this new
campaign are being established in the
offices of the National Association of
Audubon Societies, at No. 141
Broadway, New York. Already the
organization Is In touch with thous-
ands OF teachers and girls and boys
Clubs throughout the country. to
which 1t has regularly sent literature
on bird guarding and care. With
these as nucleus, the children are to
pusl the fight until the members of
each school in every neighborhooj
are enlisted in the work of building
bird houses and restaurants" to suS-
tain the sadly thinned ranks of the
feathered army OIL insect destroy
ers. Special ammunition in the form
of printed directions and suggestions
for making bird shelters and lunch |
counters is being prepared for every
boy and girl who will write and ask !
for it.
Old kettles. boxes. or milk, 10
mato and kerosene cans, are being !
used by the children as emergency
bird shelters. Elaborate houses, rus
tic limitations of hollow limbs, and
neatly furnished apartments are also
being planned All must be made
cat-proof, and should face to the
south or west if possible. The feath-
cred pair who will seek quarters for
rearing their families in the spring
will be particular in their tastes. IL
they find no promising spot for a
home in any locality, they will pass
on ana leaves it's fields and gardens
at the mercy of the insects. The
children are urged to the immediate
bui ling of houses for this seasons
bird families, because seasoned and
weather-beaten structures most
quickly tempt the birds when spring
moving day comes.
Ornithologists declare that the
march of civilization has robbed mil
lions of useful, as well as slightly and
tunefui. birds of their old-time facili-
ties for home making. Sheltering
tree trunks are being laid low every
year over hundreds of acres. The
old-fashioned structures, where birds
might flock under open caves, are be-
ing replaced by modern roofs that
shut out bird life. Whole races, like
the chimney swifts, are being de-
prived of their shelter in the big,
ole style chimnies.
Sch conditions, combined with lax
laws for spring shooting and pot
bunting, may drive the valuable in
sent eaters to extinction. 1t will be
the childrens work to house the
evicted birds at the time when they
rot only rear their young, but eat
most copiously of the insect crop-de-
strcyers.
The children are now the great
factor in this economic movement"
said William butcher, president of
the National Association of Audubon I
Societies. Not only their patriotism ,