BUKEAU OF BIOLOGICAL SUEVEY. 373 



District of Columbia, 3; Florida. 28; Georgia. 18; Illinois, 28; Iowa, 

 16 ; Kansas, 1 ; Kentucky, 17 ; Louisiana, 28 ; Maine, 2 ; Maryland, 35 ; 

 Massachusetts, 1; Michigan, 3; Minnesota, 20; Mississippi, 3; Mis- 

 souri, 27; Montana, 5; Nebraska, 18; Nevada, 1; New Jersey, 31: 

 New York. 10; Nortli Carolina. 6: North Dakota, 1; Ohio, 4; JRhode 

 Island, 5 ; South Carolina, 2 ; South Dakota, 10 ; Tennessee, 3 ; Texas, 

 26; Virginia, 5; Washington, 7; and Wisconsin, 5. 



A libel proceeding against 5,736 reedbirds was filed in the Supreme 

 Court of the District of Columbia, and by order of the court the birds 

 were given to the Walter Eeed Hospital for use as food. Five libel 

 proceedings against aigrettes were had in Alabama and the plumes 

 condemned by court order. 



Plumes of migratory birds, of an estimated value of $12,500, pos- 

 sessed, offered for sale, or sold in violation of the law, were seized 

 during the year. Some of these were released to the bureau by the 

 parties from whom seized, while others w^ere turned over to it by 

 court order. Numerous seizures were made of migratory game birds 

 illegally killed or possessed, and most of such birds have been dis- 

 posed of by the bureau, with the consent of the person from whom 

 seized, by gift to hospitals and charitable institutions for use as food. 



In many cases substantial fines have been imposed, but in others 

 the convicted parties have been given their freedom on payment of 

 nominal fines. One persistent offender, charged with transporting 

 quail and other game birds from Massachusetts to New York, but 

 which were seized in transit at New Haven, Conn., M'as convicted and 

 sentenced to 3 months in jail. A violator charged with unlawfully 

 collecting eggs of migratory birds was arraigned in the Federal 

 court for the eastern district of South Carolina and fined $30 and 

 costs, and in addition sentenced to one week in the Charleston County 

 jail. In Michigan in 2 cases involving the purchase and sale of wild 

 ducks fines of $250 and $500 were imposed ; in Florida in 2 cases in- 

 volving the possession and sale of aigrettes, each violator w^as fined 

 $250, and the plumes, worth several thousand dollars, were confiscated 

 and condemned: one. offender arraigned in Federal court at Sioux 

 Falls, S. Dak., charged with selling wild ducks, was fined $200 ; while 

 one arraigned on a similar charge at Baltimore, Md., was fined $250 

 and costs. A case involving hunting and killing geese in close season 

 resulted in a fine of $100 in the Federal court in New Jersey; the 

 offender in this caise was convicted in Federal court last year and fined 

 $5, but at the trial for the second offense he was warned by the judge 

 that another repetition would merit a jail sentence. At Milwaukee, 

 Wis., the Federal judge imposed fines of $100 each against 3 persons 

 charged with shooting wild ducks after sunset. Many fines ranging 

 fi'om $25 to $100 were also imposed by judges in other States. 



The airplane also had its place in the pursuit of game, and as a re- 

 sult of resort to this illegal means of hunting migratory game birds 

 five violators were apprehended, one of Avhom has been convicted and 

 fined $50 in Federal court at Sioux Falls, S. Dak., this being the first 

 conviction under the Federal law for a violation of this character; 

 the other four ca.ses are still pending. 



Several prosecutions on charges "of hunting from motor boats re- 

 sulted in convictions and the imposition of substantial fines. One 

 person charge<l witli liunting from a motor boat entered a demurrer 



