10 



Bird - Lore 



by the passage of the Act of Congress of May ii, creating the Glacier 

 National Park in the Rocky Mountains, and a few months later by the 

 action of the Louisiana Legislature in establishing two large state game 

 preserves. Massachusetts has provided for the publication of an extended 

 work on the game birds of the state, and has extended complete protection 

 to Upland Plover for five years; New Jersey closed the season on Wood 

 Duck for five years; New York abolished Brant shooting in the springy 

 and enacted the so-called 'Shea plumage bill' which will prohibit the sale 

 of aigrettes after July i, 1911; Ohio corrected a defect in the statute which 

 for a time threatened the successful enforcement of the plumage provis- 

 ion; South Carolina provided a close season for Willets, Doves, and Crack- 

 les, previously unprotected; and late in the year, Vermont extended pro- 

 tection to the Wood Duck for five years, and established the office of State 

 Ornithologist. In educational work, important progress was made, par- 

 ticularly in California, where Finley has arranged for cooperative demon- 

 stration work between the University of California and the Fish and Game 

 Commission. Through the liberality of Mrs. Russell Sage, the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies has been enabled to undertake more 

 extended work in the South, especially among the schools. Considerable 

 attention has been given to the enforcement of plumage laws in the West, 

 and in connection with this work the game warden of Missouri has ap- 

 pointed a special deputy as 'millinery expert,' the first official of the kind 

 in the United States. In the broader field of international bird protection 

 the United States was represented at the Fifth International Ornitho- 

 logical Congress, held in Berlin, at which a committee on bird protection 

 was appointed. This commmittee comprised representatives from four- 

 teen countries, the representatives of the United States being the President 

 and Vice-President of the National Association of Audubon Societies. 



Early in January, the revenue cutter 'Thetis' arrived at Honolulu, having 

 on board twenty-three Japanese poachers and the plumage of some 259,- 

 000 birds killed on Laysan and Lisiansky islands in the Hawaiian Bird 

 Reservation. The total number of birds destroyed by the poachers was 

 probably not less than 300,000. The poachers were later tried, sentenced 

 to pay a nominal fine and deported to Japan. Action against the person 

 responsible for the expedition failed, except to deprive him of the profits 

 of the expedition and to cause him heavy expense in defending the case. 

 Reports of Robin shooting in the South in the spring, particularly in 

 Tennessee, received much attention from the press, and aroused protests 

 in various parts of the country. In Louisiana, the complete protection 

 formerly accorded Gulls and Robins was modified, and a short open 

 season was placed on these birds. On October 19, the cause of bird pro- 

 tection received a severe blow : Mr. Wm. Dutcher, President of the 

 National Association of Audubon Societies, suffered a stroke of apoplexy, 



