404 Bird - Lore 



to obtain sufficient food. The colony at Monomy is more favorably situated, 

 and as the Massachusetts Conservation Commission, through the good offices 

 of Director William C. Adams of the Fish and Game Division, employed a man 

 to destroy the numerous cats, skunks, and other enemies of the Terns at that 

 station, this colony did well. An attempt was made to pass an act in the 

 Massachusetts Legislature to set aside Penikese Island as a reservation for 

 Terns, sea-birds, wild-fowl, and shore-birds. This bill failed of passage. The 

 state now keeps a man on the island and protects the birds there, but under the 

 present law the island will be sold whenever an adequate price is offered. The 

 sale of this island may be the death-knell of this great Tern colony. Some 

 friend of the birds should buy it and present it to the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies. Penikese and Muskeget are the only two islands off the 

 Massachusetts coast on which there is a chance of preserving Tern colonies 

 perpetually. All the other islands are in harbors or close to the coast and will 

 be occupied eventually by summer residents. None of the Massachusetts 

 coast colonies of Common Terns succeeded in rearing enough young this year 

 to keep up their numbers. The Roseate Terns on the islands may have held 

 their own but there are few Arctic Terns there. The Least Terns did well this 

 year. They have scattered along the coasts of Cape Cod and Martha's Vine- 

 yard and have occupied new nesting-sites. More young birds were in evidence 

 at the close of the breeding-season than for many years. The only chance the 

 Least Tern has to perpetuate its race is to scatter in small groups along the 

 coast, like the Piping Plover, which, under protection, has risen in a few years 

 from a rare breeder approaching extirpation to a common summer resident on 

 many suitable New England shores not completely overrun by summer people. 



The dangers to bird-life are constantly increasing. Now come the automo- 

 bile, the airplane, the electrification of steam railroads with their additional 

 strings of wires, and last, but not least, the oil danger. 



Fuel-oil cast upon the sea or into harbors has destroyed, during the past 

 year, hundreds of birds in New England waters. Geese, Ducks, Loons, Puffins, 

 Murres, and Auks seem to be the principal victims. Shore-birds apparently 

 suffer little, and few Gulls and Terns seem to be affected. Much of this floating 

 oil comes from pumping waste oil out of the bilges or tanks of steamships. 

 Now and then a wreck of a tanker occurs which liberates thousands of gallons 

 of oil on the surface of the sea, to destroy nearly every bird that is once im- 

 mersed in its sticky flood. The pumping of waste oil into the sea should be 

 stopped. This oil can be utilized. The Japanese use it. Are the Whites their 

 inferiors? 



The New England States as a section seem to have taken the lead in the 

 bird-banding movement inaugurated by the Biological Survey. During the 

 past year the New England Bird-Banding Association has been organized, and 

 now numbers hundreds of members. The value of this work is fully appreci- 

 ated in these states, and Laurence B. Fletcher, of Boston, the enterprising and 



