Any person, club, school or company in sympathy with the objects of this Association may become a member of it, and all are welcome.
Classes of Membership in the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals:
| $5 | annually pays for a Sustaining Membership |
| $100 | paid at one time constitutes a Life Membership |
| $1,000 | constitutes a person a Patron |
| $5,000 | constitutes a person a Founder |
| $25,000 | constitutes a person a Benefactor |
Form of Bequest:—I do hereby give and bequeath to The National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals (Incorporated), of the City of New York.
In the last issue of Bird-Lore were reproduced some photographs of a ruined White Ibis rookery, which Dr. Herbert R. Mills stated had been destroyed by “sportsmen” who had wantonly shot the birds. Such raids on the bird-life of Florida have been made frequently by northern visitors to the state. A striking example of this habit has just come to public notice.
In the February issue of Scribner’s Magazine, a writer, after referring to the pleasures he enjoyed while catching tarpon at Bocagrande, says:
“Birds were always flying around the boat; Gulls, Man-o’-wars, Pelicans, and when we weren’t fishing we were potting at them with a Winchester .22. The Big Chief was a wizard with a rifle, and even skimming Swallows were none too swift or too small for his Deadeye Dick precision of aim. After cutting down a sailing Man-o’-war, two hundred yards above the water, and surely three hundred yards away, he formed a Man-o’-war’s Club; any body who killed one flying was entitled to membership.”
All these birds are protected by the laws of Florida and at least one of them by the United States Migratory Bird Law. There is no open season for any of them. The man who wrote this is not a poor, illiterate inhabitant of the southern swamps, who killed the birds to sell their feathers for a few dollars with which to help feed his family; but is a successful writer of novels and stories, many of which you and I have bought and read with pleasure. Incidentally, by our purchase of his work, we have aided in swelling his royalties, thus enabling him to go to Bocagrande, and doubtless elsewhere, where he might amuse himself from time to time in the very delectable sport of shooting harmless non-game birds. This man is John Fox, Jr.
As a result of the work of this Association, the Pelican colonies in Charlotte Harbor near Bocagrande have been made Federal bird-reservations. While attempting to protect one of them, Columbus G. McLeod, one of our wardens, had his head chopped open and his body sunk in the harbor by persons who did not approve of his zeal. These birds—the wards of the Government, the birds that the Audubon Society’s members have been giving money to protect, and the birds for which one good man has given up his life—these birds afford targets for Mr. John Fox Jr., and his friends; and Scribner’s Magazine, doubtless greatly pleased at the privilege of being allowed to publish an article from the pen of a gentleman so distinguished, kind and altruistic, has taken these boasting sentences and printed them, regardless of the fact that the magazine will go into thousands of homes to be read by young men who may later go tarpon-fishing in the limpid waters about Bocagrande, and who might be inspired to follow the example of the noble deeds of this celebrated novelist.