Reports of Field Agents 275 



the office. This final cuhiiination of the attempt to secure a State Ornitholo- 

 gist in Connecticut is iiu ouraj^inj];. Mr. Job has been appointed a member 

 of the Faculty of the Connecticut State Agricultural College, and is doing 

 public work by publishing a series of articles in the newspapers of Connecticut, 

 which cannot fail to do much good in educating the people in regard to ])ird 

 protection. 



REPORT OF WILLIAM L. FINLEY 



During the ])ast spring and summer, as your agent, 1 made a study of 

 bird-life in Arizona. Here I found a situation that parallels in its heartless- 

 ness the slaughter of Herons in the nesting colony. There is absolutely no 

 protection for Doves at any season of the year in Arizona. I found nesting 

 about Tucson, the Mourning, White-winged, Inca and Mexican Ground Doves. 

 In the early spring I saw hunters in the field shooting these different Doves. 

 As summer advanced and more Doves arrived from the South, the number 

 of hunters increased. In May and June, when the young were hatching and 

 being fed, the shooting continued. Every day I saw hunters in the field. 

 The Doves flock in toward evening from the desert regions to a few places 

 where they can get water, and here they are regularly shot. One Sunday in 

 June we counted seventeen hunters at a place called the Nine-mile Water-hole 

 south of Tucson. A hunter often bags as high as fifty or sixty birds a day. 



This slaughter at the water holes is carried on, not only by boys and Mexi- 

 cans, but by many men prominent in business life. One of these told me he 

 did not realize the birds were nesting, and another man complained that Doves 

 destroyed too much grain. I looked over a string of sixteen that a Mexican 

 was carrying, and found several birds with bare breasts, showing they were 

 either incubating eggs or feeding young. 



Without the enactment of laws and without educational work, we may 

 soon have a Passenger Pigeon parallel in the Southwest. The Arizona Audubon 

 Society, however, will make a strong attempt to secure protection for Doves 

 at the next session of the legislature. I should regard the accomplishment 

 of such a step as one of the most important features of wild-bird protection 

 in the Southwest. 



As an industry, the raising of difTerent varieties of fruits along the Pacific 

 coast is constantly growing in importance, and objection to certain birds 

 continues to be heard. It is exceedingly important that we continue to make 

 economic studies concerning the usefulness of wild birds to the farming com- 

 munity. It is most important that a thorough campaign be waged among 

 farmers and fruit-growers to show the economic value of birds. 



The Meadowlark, Red-winged Blackbird, and one or two others, have 

 been doing some damage to crops in different parts of California. It seems more 

 than likely that at the next legislative session another attempt will be made 



