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Bird - Lore 



rapid settlement of our country and the drainage of marshes and lakes, vast 

 nesting-places of wild flocks were destroyed and wild birds are disappearing. 

 The wild birds belong to the people as a whole. They are an economic necessity 

 to the nation as insect destroyers. They are protected by state and Federal 

 laws, and also through our treaty with Canada. But birds cannot live without 

 homes. Malheur Lake is without question the greatest wild-fowl nursery in 

 the United States. It would be the greatest living memorial to the memory of 

 Theodore Roosevelt. It would be better than a hundred marble shafts. It 

 would be worth more to Oregon as a place unique in the natural history of 

 North America. The draining of Malheur Lake will mean the practical exter- 

 mination of certain species of birds in Oregon, such as the American Egret 

 and the White-faced Glossy Ibis. Such a scheme, which would mean the blot- 

 ting out of countless thousands of Oregon birds by the destruction of their 

 feeding- and breeding-grounds, under the guise of adding to the state school 

 fund, would be a criminal plot that the children of Oregon would never forget. 

 It would be selling their birthright for a mess of pottage. 



During February, March, and April, as your representative, I delivered 

 a series of lectures through the eastern states, beginning at Denver, then going 

 to Kansas City, St. Louis, Buffalo and other cities. These lectures were given 

 for the University of Illinois, Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, National 

 Geographic Society, American Museum of Natural History, American Institute 

 of New York City, Columbia University, University of Minnesota, and other 

 colleges, as well as various Audubon Societies, sportsmen's organizations and 

 clubs. 



During the latter part of May and June, Mrs. Finley and I accompanied 

 Mr. Pearson during a portion of his trip along the coast of Texas and secured 

 a good series of motion pictures of the colonies in that region. 



During July and August we made an extended trip through Yellowstone 

 Park for the purpose of photographing and studying big game animals on the 

 summer range. We visited the bird colonies on the islands in Yellowstone Lake 

 and then went on south. With a pack outfit, we followed the upper Yellow- 

 stone to the south border and into Wyoming where we spent several days 

 getting pictures of moose in the wide willow meadows of that region. We then 

 trailed west along the park border over the Rocky Mountain Divide, across 

 Big Game Ridge, where we saw the great numbers of elk that spend the winter 

 in the Jackson Hole country. We followed down the headwaters of the Snake 

 River to the south boundary ranger's station. 



Returning from the Yellowstone, we spent three weeks exploring and taking 

 motion pictures in the Hozomeen Mountains along the border of northern 

 Washington and British Columbia. We had tried for several years to get pic- 

 tures of mountain goats. This was the main object of our expedition. As usual, 

 we failed because of their wildness and the rugged country where they lived. 

 Some of the birds of the region, especially the Franklin's Grouse, or Fool Hen, 



