3i8 



Bird - Lore 



Haddock Rock. Moreover, I was told by 

 fishermen on Baily Island that they were 

 unable to raise chickens on their island if 

 cannonading occurred during the incu- 

 bating period. In both these cases, the 

 islands affected were almost directly in 

 front of the guns, where the shock is 

 greatest. 



Since target-practice is held only at 

 comparatively long intervals, the time 

 could easily be arranged so as not to 

 conflict with the incubation-period of the 

 Terns, which require only about six weeks 

 from the time the first egg is laid until the 

 last one is hatched. Arthur H. Norton, 

 the field-agent for Maine of the National 



Association of Audubon Societies, informs 

 me that the Common Tern deposits its 

 eggs from June 15 to 30, a few a little 

 earlier, perhaps, and many later. Accord- 

 ing to this, the last eggs would undoubt- 

 edly be hatched by the end of July. If, 

 therefore, the District Commander would 

 set the time for target-practice in accord- 

 ance with the above dates, there would 

 be no further trouble from this source. 

 Such action would practically complete 

 the effectiveness of the work of the 

 National Association's string of eighteen 

 wardens guarding the seaboard colonies 

 on the coast of Maine. — Herbert R. 

 Mills, M.D., Tampa, Florida. 



A WOMAN GAME-^VARDEN 



No one is surprised in these days at a 

 woman's attempting any sort of a task in 

 a field heretofore regarded as belonging 

 exclusively to man, nor is there doubt of 

 her ability to succeed — simply a momen- 

 tary surprise at the novelty of some of her 

 undertakings. This pleased wonder yields 

 to admiration as one reads of the very 

 valuable service Mrs. L. H. Bath is doing 

 as a protector of wildfowl, and as a terror 

 to lawbreakers, at Klamath Lake. This 

 great body of fresh water and marsh, on 

 the boundary between California and 

 Oregon, is one of the most extensive and 

 populous feeding-places and breeding- 

 resorts for wildfowl in the whole country, 

 and it is especially important to bird-life 

 in that region, where a great part of the 

 surrounding area is arid. The traditions 

 of the abundance of bird-life thronging 

 there half a century ago are almost in- 

 credible; but latterly reckless slaughter by 

 market-gunners, and by careless farmers 

 and sportsmen, had so depleted these 

 numbers that, in 1908, it was necessary 

 to include the lake in a federal game 

 preserve in order to save the remnant of 

 the wild life. The regions of the lake where 

 water-birds chiefly breed have since been 

 patrolled by a warden in the National 

 Association's patrol-boat Grebe. This 

 made little difference, however, to the 



market-gunners in the neighborhood of 

 Klamath Falls, who often came as before, 

 or to some local men and boys who had 

 been accustomed to kill Ducks and rob 

 nests, regardless of law or gospel. Such 

 local guardianship as was attempted was 

 often defied, therefore, until Mrs. Bath be- 

 came game-warden in the autumn of 191 2. 



Soon she made everyone, neighbor or 

 stranger, understand that illegal shooting 

 must stop. She went at the work, woman- 

 fashion, to explain its need and work up a 

 favorable sentiment. She made her rounds 

 of lake-shore and stream, and sometimes 

 had to interfere with shooters, but her 

 firmness and persuasiveness and grit 

 carried her through without making an 

 arrest. That real trouble would follow 

 otherwise was plainly felt, however; and 

 now, as an eye-witness writes, "Birds are 

 as safe in Mrs. Bath's district as they are 

 in her back yard." 



One of her channels of influence has 

 been through the children, whose regular 

 amusement it has been to throw stones at 

 the birds, which, to their uninstructed 

 minds, were swimming there as heaven- 

 sent targets. Mrs. Bath uprooted that 

 error and planted a better idea in their 

 thoughts, so that soon the children were 

 feeding the birds instead of stoning them, 

 and were watching against trespassers. 



