Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1908-02-20
BIRDS NEED
CHILD HELP
CHILDREN OF THE NATION TO
BE ORGANIZED INTO MOVE.
MENT FOR HOUSING AND
FEEDING WILD BIRDS.

NEW YORK, Feb. 2O-On eigh-
teen million school children in this
country final hope of averting the
extinction of the valuable species Of
insectivorcus birds in America has
been rested today. What the federal
government, the state legislatures,
and even the oranges, women's
clubs, or national commercial or
CARNATIONS have failed to accom-
pIish completely, the National AS
goCiation Of Audubon societies have
announced will now be given to the
children of the land to bring about.
To organize every body of pupils,
from the largest public school in
this city to the most remote district
school on the Pacific coast, into a
general movement for housing, feed
ing and protecting the wild birds
that save the country's crops is the
object of the Audubon workers to-
day.
General headquarters of this new
campaign of the children are being
established in the Offices of the Ma
tional Association OF Audubon soci-
cites at 141 Broadway today, AL
ready the organization is in touch
with thousands of tea .ers and girls
and boys clubs all over the country,
to which it has regularly sent liter
ature on bird guarding and care.
With these as nucleus the children
are to push the fight out into every
section of their locality, till the
members of each school are enlisted
in the work of building bird houses
and restaurants to sustain the sad
ly thinned ranks of the feathered
army of insect destroyers. Special
ammunition in the form of printed
directions and instructions for maxi
ing bird shelters and lunch counters
is being prepared for every boy and
girl who will write for it.
Old kettles, boxes, or milk, tomato
and kerosene cans are being used by
the children as emergency bird
shelters. Elaborate houses, rustic
limitations of hollow limbs and neat
ly furnished apartments are also be-
ing planned. All must be cat-proof
and should face to the south or west
if possible. Like any human married
couple the feathered pair who are
seeking quarters for rearing their
family in the spring are quite par
ticular in their tastes. If they find
no promising spot for home in any
! locality, they will pass on and leave
its fields and gardens to be destroy
ed by insects.
The children are urged to the i'm
mediate building of houses for this
seasons bird families, because sea-
soned and weatherbeaten structures
most quickly tempt the birds when
spring moving day comes.
The march of civilization has
robbed millions of useful as we'll as
tuneful bids of their old-time facill-
ties for home building, orintholo-
gists here declared today. Shelterine
tree trunks are being laid low every
year over hundreds of acres. The
old fashioned structures where birds
might flock under open caves, are
being replaced by modern roofs that
shut out bird life. Whole races, like
the Chimney Swifts, are being de-
deprived of their shelter in the big
old-style chimneys.
Such conditions, combined witt
, lax laws for early spring shooting
and pot-hunting will soon drive th'
valuable insect-eaters to extinction
1t is agreed. 1t will be the child
ren's work to house the evicted bird
at the time when they not onl!
rear their young but eat most cop
iously of the insect crop-destroyers
"The children are now the grea
, factor in this great economic ques
, ton" said William butcher, pfesi
dent of the National Association o
!, Audubon societies today. mot onl
their patriotism but the self inter
est of every one of their parents !
the motive for the prevention OF tn
extinction of the beautiful an
a highly valuable birds of this coun
t try. We are calling on congress:
: the legislatures of the entire eoun
e try and on every adult body to help
+ but / believe the work of the sehoc
: children of the land will accom-
: plish more than all the other meth
g eds combined. 1t is fine chanc
!. for every boy and girl to do some
! thing for his village, state and b
e country at large and know the
: will not neglect to De their par