494 Bird -Lore 



output of literature, and we have cooperated to mutual advantage with a 

 greater number of societies, clubs, and institutions. 



AUDUBON WARDEN WORK 



The warden system of the Association, instituted many years ago under 

 the wise direction of President William Dutcher, has resulted in enormously 

 increasing certain species of our larger water-birds, once threatened with 

 extinction over wide areas of their range. The Directors of the Association 

 therefore regard this feature of the Audubon work as one of very great impor- 

 tance, and its continuance from year to year is producing notably beneficial 

 results. In the report submitted last year an effort was made to give some idea 

 of the numbers of water-birds breeding in the colonies guarded by this Asso- 

 tion exclusively, or in cooperation with the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. From the reports of the wardens, and from accounts by ornith- 

 ologists and others who have visited the protected regions, it appears that the 

 birds have everywhere passed through a season markedly free from human 

 depredations, and that at least a half million young birds in these regions were 

 brought to maturity. Innumerable small birds have likewise received protec- 

 tion. An encouraging increase appears in the number of Eider Ducks nesting 

 on the coast of Maine. On the other hand the Roseate Spoonbills of South 

 Florida continue to show an alarming decrease. I doubt if more than five 

 hundred of these interesting birds are left in Florida. 



Storms as usual have taken their toll. For an example of the havoc occa- 

 sionally wrought by storms I quote from the report of J. R. Andrews, warden 

 for one of the colonies on the coast of Virginia. 



"This has been the worst year on birds I have ever seen. On June 3, the tide raised 

 so high that it washed away every egg that was laid, and I am sure it drowned 75 per 

 cent, of the old Marsh Hens, and every egg and young Marsh Hen. The Gulls, Terns, 

 Willets and Oyster-catchers all laid again, and on July 25 and 26 the tide came again 

 and washed all of the eggs and young birds away again, and they did not lay again. It 

 seems too bad to have as good a hatch out of young birds as I had and not raise one, but 

 we cannot help what the blessed Lord does." 



On the other hand there is the cheerful report of Warden Harlow, of Moose- 

 head Lake, Maine, who apparently in all seriousness feels that he has found a 

 panacea for all nesting troubles of the Herring Gull. In one nest, built in the top 

 of a hollow stump, he discovered the left hind foot of a snowshoe rabbit, and 

 gravely asks if this is not responsible for the fact that all three of the eggs 

 hatched and the young did well. 



EGRET PROTECTION 



In our determination to guard nesting rookeries of Egrets during the past 

 season, seventeen special wardens were engaged— one in Georgia, one in Mis- 



