THE OOLOGIST 



149 



angles. It also seems a pity that the 

 fatuous White-crowned Pigeon of the 

 Bahamas should be shot for sport and 

 food, just at the time it is laying and 

 with small young in nests. At the 

 time of my visit there last month, the 

 majority of these pigeons had nests 

 just ready for eggs, many with fresh 

 eggs, and a few newly hatched young. 

 It would be impossible for the major- 

 ity of these young birds to be large 

 enough to take care of themselves by 

 the time your shooting season opens 

 while if the season opened September 

 15th these young would be strong of 

 flight, and the old birds through the 

 moult also. As it now stands, it is 

 killing the breed off rapidly to shoot 

 the old birds as they return to the 

 keys to feed their young, the young of 

 course dying from starvation and ex- 

 posure. This practice nearly extermi- 

 nated the "Egrets" in this country, and 

 if the sportsmen could try postponing 

 the "open season" for one year, I think 

 he would see that there would be 

 more birds for all; and he would get 

 his sport in a really humane way. I 

 am sure the officials will be interested 

 in bird protection over there, for the 

 Canadian U. S. Bird Treaty put 

 through some time ago, showed that 

 all. countries are alive to their bird 

 assets, both from an agricultural 

 standpoint and means of attracting 

 sportsmen. Anything you may be able 

 to do or suggest will, I know, be ap- 

 preciated, and if I can supply any as- 

 sistance or information to the officials 

 at Nassau, please call on me." 



SWAN KILLING NOT PROFITABLE 



^teps should be taken to bring the law 

 breaker to justice. 



There appeared in one of the Ft. 

 Worth papers an article trying to des- 

 cribe a most wonderful bird that had 

 been killed by a well known ranch- 

 man from San Angelo, Texas. From 

 its description it could have been 

 nothing else but a Swan. So cutting 

 ihe article out I sent it to the Federal 

 Warden for the state. He identified 

 same for them. He also told them 

 what it would cost them for killing 

 the mysterious bird. They had a pic- 

 ture made of themselves holding the 

 Swans up by their necks and a smile 

 of satisfaction on their faces. But the 

 v/arden (Mr. Geo. Shupee, San Antonio, 

 Texas), got the picture to try and 

 identify the bird so of course the rest 

 was easy. I don't think that any one 

 else will shoot any more Swans from 

 that section. From the number of 

 violations from west Texas I think 

 that there must have been quite i 

 r.umber of Swans passing through this 

 season. 



Geo. E. Maxon, 

 U. S. Deputy Game Warden, 



Ft. W^orth, Texas. 



There appeared a note in the Jan- 

 uary 1921 issue by Ye Editor cf some 

 one having a Swan in his po3.ies3ion 

 and offering same for sale, and thought 



MILLER'S QUESTIONS 



I was much impressed with the in- 

 teresting list of questions prepared by 

 Mr. Richard F. Miller, which appeared 

 in the September issue of The Oologist, 

 and would like to suggest that if Mr. 

 Miller would place a list of answers 

 in an issue, it would be interesting to 

 have his opinion on some of these 

 questions, and instructive to myself as 

 well as some other young ornithologist 

 I presume, who are subscribers to 

 this most esteemed paper. 



Byron C. Marshall, 

 Imboden, Arkansas. 



