[Footnote A: The editor acknowledges the receipt from Mr. Witmer Stone, chairman of the Committee on Bird Protection of the American Ornithologists' Union, of a number of the following reports, which, before the establishment of an official organ for the Audubon Societies, had been sent to Mr. Stone for inclusion in his annual report to the A. O. U., from which, through lack of space, they were necessarily omitted.]
The Massachusetts Audubon Society has reissued the Audubon Calendar of last year and it is having a good sale. The drawings were made especially for the calendar by a member of the society; the originals are painted in water colors on Japanese rice paper, and are very artistic bird portraits. The same artist is now at work on drawings of new birds for a calendar for 1900, which the directors hope will be reproduced by a more accurate and satisfactory process.
The Bird Chart of colored drawings of twenty-six common birds, which the Directors undertook last spring, is now ready. The drawings have all been especially made for the chart by E. Knobel and are reproduced by the Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Co., on twelve stones. Some of our best ornithologists have seen the color proof and pronounce it good. The society has published a descriptive pamphlet to accompany the chart which has been prepared by Ralph Hoffmann. His sketches of the birds are delightfully written, and the book is valuable in itself.[B]
[Footnote B: See note on this chart and pamphlet in _Book News and Reviews_.]
The Directors have recently sent out a new circular mainly in Boston and vicinity, which briefly describes the work undertaken and asks for further coöperation from interested persons, and states that "in addition to our first object, the support of other measures of importance for the further protection of our native birds has been assumed by the Society." Among such measures may be mentioned:
2. Improved legislation in regard to the killing of birds, and the better enforcement of present laws.
3. Protection during the season for certain breeding places of Gulls, Herons and other birds, which, without such protection will soon be exterminated.
4. Educational measures. This includes the publication of colored wall charts of birds, Audubon Calendars and other helps to bird study.