342 



Bird -Lore 



GENERAL NOTES 



New Refuges for Birds 



President Wilson has ordered that 

 Spirit Island, a small rocky islet in Lake 

 Mille Lacs, Minnesota, shall be set apart 

 as a reserve, under control of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, for breeding birds. 

 It will be known as the Mille Lacs Reser- 

 vation. 



This state also established, on June i6, 

 by order of the Fish and Game C^ommis- 

 sion, a bird-refuge, including the group of 

 lakes connected with, or near to. Lake 

 Minnetonka, a few miles west of Minne- 

 apolis. Frank D. Blair, Field Superinten- 

 dent of the Minnesota Protective League, 

 announces that the propagation of Mal- 

 lards, Quails, and Pheasants will soon be 

 undertaken there on a large scale; and that 

 three wardens will be placed there for the 

 general protection of all birds. Many 

 persons of wealth and influence are behind 

 this commendable attempt at bird-preser- 

 vation, and no labor or expense will be 

 spared that are needed to make this a first- 

 class refuge and preserve of bird-life. 



The great Klamath Lake Reservation, 

 on the boundary between California and 

 Oregon, was found to have been unwisely 

 delimited in some respects, and its size 

 has been reduced to a small degree; but 

 it is believed that its usefulness has not 

 been diminished. 



The reservation of Blackbeard Island, 

 Georgia, has been abandoned; but special 

 prohibitions for the protection of the 

 animal-life there are still in force, so that 

 in effect the island is still a refuge. 



Massachusetts Restrains Aliens 



The Legislature of Massachusetts has 

 enacted a law prohibiting the killing of 

 birds or game of any description, and at 

 any time, by "any unnaturalized foreign- 

 born resident, unless he owns real estate 

 in the commonwealth to the value of not 

 less than $500"; and making it unlawful 

 for any such an alien "to own or have in 



his possession or under his control shotgun 

 or rifle of any make." All othcers qualified 

 to serve a criminal process are authorized 

 to arrest, without warrant, and on Sunday 

 as well as on another day, any alien found 

 with a gun; and, upon statement of a 

 reasonable suspicion that an alien has a 

 gun in concealment, a magistrate must 

 issue a search-warrant to the ofhcer 

 applying for it. 



This law is not too sweeping, nor too 

 severe to cope with the evil against which 

 it is directed; and it is to be hoped its 

 enactment will encourage other states — 

 especially such as Pennsylvania, where 

 ignorant and irresponsible South-Euro- 

 peans are numerous — to make similar 

 protective legislation. 



Junior Work in the Kindergarten 



There is no such thing as beginning too 

 early to teach children to know and love 

 birds. This is the recommendation, from 

 our point of view, for the use of our Leaf- 

 lets and Junior-Class methods in kinder- 

 garten practice. On the other hand, there 

 seems no question that bird-study is 

 admirably adapted to the methods of 

 kindergarten instruction, through the 

 medium of Junior-Class organization and 

 the use of the plates in the Educational 

 Leaflets, together with the coloring of the 

 outlines. A concrete example of what may 

 well be done is afforded in the following 

 account of her kindergarten class in 

 Baltimore, by Miss Beatrice M. Riall, of 

 the Homewood Kindergarten, and by the 

 charming photograph accompanying it. 

 Miss Riall writes: 



"These little folks are Junior Members 

 of the Audubon Society. All winter they 

 have been feeding the birds until the play- 

 ground was alive with Sparrows and Snow- 

 birds. In the spring, when the lovely 

 birds returned from their southern tour, 

 we started a serious study of bird-life. 



"As the Kindergarten motto is 'Learn 

 by Doing,' we dramatized bird-life as well 

 as we could. First we learned how to fly, 

 hop, and chirp nearly as well as the birds 



