Massachusetts Audubon Society 3 



silent one, against organizations like the Audubon Societies, but I think 

 everyone interested in sport and its perpetuation, has now got to admit the 

 wise forethought in such laws as the non-sale of game, the stopping of spring 

 shooting, and the federal control of migrants. Just as these wise measures 

 were at first bitterly contested, so will the 'sanctuary idea find opposition in 

 some quarters, but nevertheless it is surely coming, and will some day de- 

 velop into one of our most valuable methods of preserving sport for all. 



So, as at the beginning I cannot think of any place better adapted for 

 the purpose outlined, than the attractive little pond on the eastern edge of 

 Ipswich Neck. 



PROTECT THE MAYFLOWER 



Mayflower time is at hand. Even in April, in sunny nooks, the Trailing 

 Arbutus is putting forth sweet-scented blooms, shyly smiling up beneath the 

 brown of oak leaves of last year that rustle crisply in the sun and wind. The 

 Society for the Protection of Native Plants rightly urges us to go slowly in 

 plucking these earliest of spring beauties. Concerning this, Mr. J. E. Cham- 

 berlin has well said in the Boston Transcript: 



"Mayflowers are sold on the streets now — Mayflowers from Plymouth; 

 and one wonders whether their new situation as the State flower will not be 

 the death of them, causing a demand which will contribute to their extermina- 

 tion. The Trailing Arbutus cannot be cultivated, and public pressure upon 

 it tends to make it more and more rare. The area of its growth is limited. 

 It is not nearly so common in the Plymouth woods as it was twenty years 

 ago. The trailing vine roots along the ground, and the flowers can scarcely 

 be gathered without taking some of the roots. Extremely shy in its habits, it 

 does not recover from this treatment, but disappears. It is even possible that, 

 if any new pressure is put upon it, the flower will disappear from the State 

 altogether. 



"In this situation, it is proper that some official means should be taken 

 for the Mayflower's protection. It grows on the Wachusett reservation, and 

 must be cherished there. It is fairly abundant, too, though diminishing, in 

 the Berkshire hills. The region where Trailing Arbutus is found in greatest 

 abundance of all is Long Island. In the town of Huntington, not a mile 

 from Walt Whitman's birthplace, it blooms literally by the acre, but even 

 there it is disappearing. In New Hampshire it is abundant, while on some 

 of the Vermont hill roads it grows down to the very wheel tracks. It grows 

 in the South as well as the North, and is fairly abundant in the mountains 

 of Georgia and the Carolinas, where it is called 'wax myrtle.' In view of 

 its wide distribution, it is not probable that it will ever be exterminated 

 altogether. But we shall have to look out for it very carefully here in 

 populous Massachusetts lest our State flower become locally but a memory." 



FIREWORKS AND STARLINGS 



Without killing or maiming a single bird, the municipal authorities of 

 Montclair, N. J., last year rid the locality of starlings and grackles, great 

 flocks of which have invaded the city each fall, roosting in the trees along 

 two fashionable streets, and disturbing the residents by their night cries. A 

 proposal to frighten the birds away by shooting at them with firearms met 

 with strong opposition. Among other schemes suggested was the use of fire- 



