THE OOLOGIST 



187 



rendered by these birds at a critical 

 time in the history of the community. 

 For three consecutive years — 1848, 

 1849, and 1850 — blaclt crickets by 

 millions threatened to ruin the crops 

 upon which depended the very lives 

 of the settlers. Large flocks of gulls 

 came to the rescue and devoured vast 

 numbers of the destructive insects, 

 until the fields were entirely freed 

 from them. It is no wonder that the 

 sentiment of the people of Utah as 

 reflected through their laws affords 

 gulls the fullest protection. 



Of the 68 bird reservations, some 

 27 situated on the seacoast or on is- 

 lands in the Great Lakes are visited 

 by the gulls in migration and fre- 

 quented by them during the breeding 

 season. In these reservations the 

 birds find safety from human moiasta- 

 tion and local wardens have endeavor- 

 ed to reduce their wild native enemies 

 to a minimum. 



Among the birds frequenting these 

 reservations are the glaucous-winged, 

 western, herring, California, and 

 laughing gulls. Thus these reserva- 

 tions protect several of the most im- 

 portant species of North American 

 gulls. 



Through the efforts of individuals 

 and the National Association of Audu- 

 bon Societies, guards and wardens 

 have been employed along the coasts 

 until it is probable that there is no 

 important colony from Maine to Flor- 

 ida not guarded during the breeding 

 season. A few colonies are protect- 

 ed on the Gulf coast, and on the Ore- 

 gon coast breeding-places are guarded 

 by State wardens. As a result of this 

 protection herring gulls along the 

 coast of Maine have increased consid- 

 erably, while laughing gulls are begin- 

 ning to be common once more in var- 

 ious localities where they had been al- 

 most exterminated. 



Fully as important for the protec- 



tion and increase of gulls has been the 

 enactment of state laws prohibiting 

 their killing of any time of year and 

 of laws prohibiting the sale of their 

 plumage. Gulls with their close allies, 

 the terns, have been among tlae great- 

 est sufferers from the millinery trade. 

 As is usually the case, the birds were 

 shot on the breeding grounds during 

 the height of the nesting season, thus 

 causing the death not only of the par- 

 ent birds, but insuring the death of 

 the young birds by lingering starva- 

 tion. Some years ago the public awoke 

 to the barbarity of such slaughter, and 

 after much agitation New Jersey, in 

 1885, enacted the first effective state 

 law prohibiting the killing of gulls. 

 This example has been followed by 

 other states until now — 1915 — there 

 are forty states which protect gulls 

 all the year. Louisiana protects them 

 during the breeding season, February 

 1 to August 1, while five states — Mon- 

 tana, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and New 

 Mexico — offer them no protection at 

 any time of year. 



The surest way to protect any given 

 bird is to remove the temptation to 

 destroy it, and so the most certain 

 way to stop the killing of gulls for the 

 millinery trade is to prohibit the sale 

 of gulls' wings and plumage, so that 

 the plume hunter can find no market 

 for his spoils. To California belongs 

 the credit of incorporating in the game 

 law of 1895 the first law in this coun- 

 try prohibiting the sale of gulls' plum- 

 age for millinery purposes. Many 

 states followed this lead until, in 1910, 

 New York, enacted the most drastic 

 law of all, prohibiting not only the 

 sale but the having in possession of 

 the plumage of any bird belonging to 

 the same family as any of the birds 

 of the state of New York. 



U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



Bulletin No. 292. 

 Distribution and Migration of North 



