hat
a special effort should be made to arouse interest in the protection of
the Robin, which in the Southern States was at that time almost
universally regarded as a game bird whose natural destiny was
considered to be a potpie. Bird study, it is true, was at that time
taught in many city schools, but usually the subject was given slight
space in the curriculum, and for the children and {245} teachers there
was available only a limited literature, and it was of an inadequate
character. A working plan was at once developed whereby literature,
coloured pictures of birds, and the Audubon button should be supplied
to all the pupils in a school who enrolled themselves as members of an
Audubon Class. Each member was required to pay a nominal fee, which,
however, was much less than the cost of producing the material received
in return.

During the school year that followed the matter was brought to the
attention of many of the Southern teachers, and over five hundred
Junior Audubon societies resulted, with an enrollment of more than ten
thousand children. Following the course of instruction outlined in the
literature furnished to the teachers, these children were taught the
correct names of many of the common birds, and on field walks they
learned to know them by sight. The dates when certain birds were last
seen in autumn and first arrived in spring were noted and carefully
recorded. Food was given to the birds in winter and {246} bird boxes
of various patterns were constructed and placed in parks, orchards, or
woods where they would most likely be of service to birds looking for
suitable nesting hollows. Bird study was correlated with reading,
English composition, history, geography, and even arithmetic.

_A Nation-wide Movement._--So successful did this experiment prove that
the Audubon workers agreed upon extending this same system into the
schools of all the other States in the Union, and the various Provinces
of Canada. The fall of 1911, therefore, saw plans well under way for a
greatly enlarged scope of work. During the school year, which closed
the last of June, 1912, the Association, at a cost of thirteen thousand
dollars, enrolled 29,369 school children under the standard bearing the
inscription "Protect the Birds."

The movement has continued to grow, and up to June 1, 1916, there had
been formed 27,873 classes with a total membership of 559,840 children.
The Association is annually expending on this wor