26 JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



tee of the American Ornithologists' Union, drafted by advice of able 

 counsel a form since known as "The A. O. U. Model Law," which 

 has been adopted with necessary (and probably some unnecessary) 

 changes by thirty-seven states. In 1901, the State of Maine, with 

 unusual public enthusiasm, adopted almost exactly the A. O. U. 

 Model Law, and since that time objections to it, if any, have not 

 been of a public nature. It is believed that the committee will 

 report against making any change. 



However great the interest in non-game birds, nothing is more 

 public than that taken in game birds. Great interest is mani- 

 fested, and funds are being raised for the introduction of the Hun- 

 garian Partridge {Perdix cinerea) into Maine, and the Legislature 

 has been asked to appropriate a small sum for the purpose. 



The troublesome Whistler again receives attention for local 

 and spring open seasons, to the discomfiture of the anti-spring- 

 shooting party of sportsmen, showing the virulence of traditional 

 customs even in the sporting fraternity. 



Black Ducks, notwithstanding the fact that a boreal race 

 winters in Maine, which was early recognized by gunners as mark- 

 edly different from the summer bird, has been so long protected by 

 even a fluctuating law that all would regard a perpetual open sea- 

 son as sacrilege. Yet there are those, even at this session, petition- 

 ing the legislature to open March and April, the most vital months of 

 the year to the interest of duck protection. Nearly all of the pair- 

 ing has been completed, and some species begin laying in Maine in 

 April. To open shooting during this month, or even March, is to 

 harass and drive away birds that might remain to breed. 



But Whistlers and others, partly or wholly marine ducks, have 

 been exempt from protection, audit appears extremely hard for gun- 

 ners and legislatures to grasp the principle of universal spring pro- 

 tection and reject the dogma that some birds need no protection at 

 any time. This bickering shows plainly that the time has come for 

 a thorough investigation of the field, and a uniform revised duck 

 law, proposed and supported by a wider circle of sportsmen and 

 bird protectors than now are striving for its support. Some excel- 

 lent suggestions on this subject are given in the recent Report of 

 the Commission of Inland Fisheries and Game for the year 1908. 



Evening Grosbeak {Hesperiphona vespertina) at Port- 

 land, Maine. — I have just examined at the shop of Mr. John A. 

 Lord, a Portland taxidermist, a splendid adult male of this species, 

 taken at Woodfords, March 6, 1909, 



Walter H. Rich. 

 Portland, Me., March 15, 1909. 



