THE RHODE ISLAND SOCIETY
The Audubon Society of Rhode Island was organized in October, 1897, and has now about 350 members.
The purposes of the society, according to its by-laws, are: the promotion of an interest in bird-life, the encouragement of the study of ornithology, and the protection of wild birds and their eggs. Some work has been done in the schools, abstracts of the state laws relating to birds have been circulated throughout the state, lectures have been given, and a traveling library has been purchased for the use of the branch societies.
Nearly five thousand circulars of various kinds have been distributed, and it is evident that the principles of the society are becoming well known and are exerting an influence, even in that difficult branch of Audubon work, the millinery crusade.
Annie M. Grant, Sec'y.
THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY
A score of ladies met in Fairfield on January 28, 1898, and formed "The Audubon Society of the State of Connecticut." Mrs. James Osborne Wright was chosen president and an executive committee provisionally elected, representing so far as possible at the beginning, the State of Connecticut.
An effort was made to find every school district in the state, and a Bird-Day programme was sent to 1,350 of these schools. Care was naturally used to see that the rural schools, at least, should be reached. Through the kindness of Congressman Hill of this district, one of our vice-presidents, 740 copies of Bulletin No. 54, 'Some Common Birds in their Relation to Agriculture,' issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, were received by the secretary, and 600 of these have been mailed to individuals.
The Society has had two lectures prepared, one by Willard G. Van Name, entitled 'Facts About Birds That Concern the Farmer,' illustrated by sixty colored lantern slides, and one by Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, on 'The Birds About Home,' illustrated by seventy colored slides. A parlor stereopticon has been purchased for use in projecting the slides.
The lectures and slides are intended primarily for the use of the local secretaries of the society, and after these for such members of the society as desire to give educational entertainments in the interest of bird protection.