144 



shootiug birds on Sunday), " the bird was re-located in a pine 

 tree and shot." 



The skin was forwarded to an expert, but he " was 

 completely non-plussed, as nothing like it had ever come into 

 liis collecting experience, and further he was unable to place it 

 from the ke3's in any of the books on American birds." The 

 bird was forwarded to the Curator of the National Museum at 

 Washington. In America " The West " always calls upon " The 

 East " on any point of " intelligence," probably out of respect to 

 the legendary acceptance " that wise men came from the East." 

 The mj^tery of the foreigner was promptly cleared up by the 

 information — "it is a Chaffinch — sometimes called the Bachelor 

 Finch — Fringilla coelehs.'" The writer follows on : — " This bird 

 had no business to be at large in this country, particularly on the 

 Pacific coast — the addition of foreign birds is never desirable, 

 and is often dangerous." Fearing that some Society was 

 importing and liberating foreign birds, the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture was consulted, and the chief of that Department 

 imparted the information " that the matter was of such 

 importance that it had been taken up as a subject of special 

 legislation ; further, in South Australia the Chaffinch, which 

 was introduced some years ago with other European birds, has 

 become so undesirable that under the Game I^aw of 1900 it is 

 included in the list of injurious birds denied protection." 

 Section 2 of the Lacey Act, requires permits for all foreign 

 birds imported into the United States. " It would be a calamity 

 for any imported species to gain a foot hold amongst our 

 native avifauna." To support this conclusion the direful 

 effects of the Mynah in the Pacific Islands, the Starling and 

 Chaffinch in Australia, and the English Sparrow in the United 

 States are strongly commented upon. 



If there was a corresponding Exclusion Act controlling 

 other "biped" foreigners, who are rapidly "acclimatized" 

 into citizens— within forty-eight hours— indifferently to the 

 possibility of " encroaching upon the food-supply of a native 

 species," much of the " undesirable importation " would be, 

 with marked advantage, curtailed, or included in the list of 

 " injurious etc." Poephii^a cincta. 



