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Protecting waterbird populations has been part of Audubon’s mission even before the official establishment of the National Audubon Society. Outrage over the slaughter of millions of waterbirds,particularly egrets and other waders,for the millinery trade led to the foundation,by Harriet Hemenway and Mina Hall,of the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1896. By 1898,state-level Audubon Societies had been established in Pennsylvania,New York,New Hampshire,Illinois,Maine,Wisconsin,New Jersey,Rhode Island,Connecticut,the District of Columbia,Ohio,Indiana,Tennessee,Minnesota,Texas,and California. In 1900,Audubon member Frank M. Chapman launched the first Christmas Bird Count – Audubon’s all-volunteer holiday census of early-winter bird populations – as an alternative to the traditional Christmas “Side Hunt,” in which hunters competed to kill as many birds (and mammals) as possible.