Reports of Field Agents 351 



their families had taken great interest in the Snowy and the American Egrets. 

 In the one small colony of plume-bearing Herons located in a marsh in Jasper 

 county, we counted nearly forty members. These went through the breeding 

 season undisturbed, about doubling their number by the time the breeding 

 season was over. In Sabine county, we beheld a dance of Egrets. This small 

 flock of big Herons remained on the breeding-grounds for a long time after 

 their breeding was over. They appeared to select partners and to change 

 corners, going through all the maneuvers of a county ball. There were very 

 few of these birds, the males outnumbering the females, and this led to fierce 

 combats. I do not know how much uncut lumber land is left in Texas, but it 

 is disappearing rapidly, and it will be necessary to establish sanctuaries for 

 the preser\'ation of the Herons, or they will disappear, if for no other cause, 

 from the clearing up of the forests and the draining of the marshes. The move 

 for the establishment of bird sanctuaries has been started, and we believe 

 that we shall have a donation of about fifty thousand acres of high-grade 

 pine land, donated to us for the purpose of giving ample protection to these 

 beautiful and fast-disappearing birds. 



Confining ourselves to no one division of the bird family, we are, never- 

 theless, making a special fight for the Plovers, Curlews and other migrants. 

 It is very likely that we shall be able to give the Robins excellent protection 

 this winter. In the coast lands of Texas, the Robins reach here as early as 

 October, but the great \'olume of their migration spreads over all Texas east 

 of the looth meridian of longitude, and all over the northern states of 

 Mexico, later in the season. 



In addition to protection of birds, the Texas Audubon Society has worked 

 hard to preserve a useful member of the lizard tribe, called the 'horned toad.' 

 They may be ranked as among the best insect-destroyers in the world. Never- 

 theless, the farmers and cattlemen have permitted them to be captured and 

 sold in crate-load lots, leading inevitably to annihilation. The Secretary of the 

 Texas Audubon Society made three surveys for the benefit of the horned toad, 

 one in Shackelford, one in Jones, and the third in Lampasas county. It was 

 ascertained that the Mttle reptiles were diminishing at an awful rate. By 

 publishing articles in the local newspapers at these points, and by writing 

 innumerable letters to influential educators and to farmers, we managed to 

 bring this horrible work to a halt. 



The ladies of Texas have organized against the use of what is known as 

 metallized horned toads, adapted by the milliners, and forced into popularity 

 as ornaments for buckles, and mounts for hat pins. Nothing that the Audubon 

 Society has accomplished will prove of greater benefit in the southwest than 

 the protection of the horned toad. Once, I have no doubt, in some localities, 

 five hundred horned toads have been captured in a twenty-five acre lot. It 

 has come to pass, through wanton destruction of the tribe, that it would now 

 take a pretty large acreage to yield one hundred horned toads. 



