VOL.111] Miscellany. 377 



NOTES ON GAME LAWS, ETC 



Notwithstanding the rain and cold weather of this year Mr. W. O. 

 Emerson reports that Anna humming birds have commenced build- 

 ing in the eucalyptus trees near his house. 



The earliest record of the nesting of this species near San Fran- 

 cisco was made by Mr. Ingersoll, who found a nest with two far ad- 

 vanced eggs on January 14; the winter was a more open one than 

 the present. 



By the first of March half a dozen or more resident species will 

 have commenced nest building, and the small boy will prepare a box 

 of bran to receive the "collection" which he makes annually, and 

 which is annually destroyed by mice or otherwise. Such pernicious 

 collecting should be discouraged by parents, and might profitably 

 receive some attention from the would-be makers of perfect game 

 laws for California. 



Some radical changes are contemplated when the next legislative 

 "tinkering of the game laws" takes place. Like most proposed 

 alterations of the kind there are some good and some injurious. To 

 provide an open season in California for elk, antelope^ and mountain 

 sheep is to assist in their total extermination in this State; too many 

 are killed in defiance of the law as it is. The fault is not so much 

 with the law as with the lax enforcement and a deplorable lack of re- 

 spect for game laws by the public. 



Elk are not rare in some places in Southwestern Oregon, and the 

 theory that persecution in that State has resulted in an immigration 

 of elk to California is extremely probable, but no one Jieed suppose 

 that they are spared to any great extent after crossing the boundai y 

 line. The law stops the marketing of elk, and in some instances de- 

 ters parties from hunting for them, but not always. It is not many 

 months since a large expedition, thoroughly equipped, left San 

 Francisco for Northern California, and it was no secret that they 

 were prepared for illegal game. 



Every little while some one comes forward with schemes of 

 restocking the State with mammals, birds, and fish, without a 

 thought of what the possible results may be from the introduction of 

 exotic species. There can be no question as to the desirability of at 

 some time introducing new game, but that time will be after the na- 



