Louisiana Bird Refugees 11 



LOUISIANA BIRD REFUGEES. 



BY ALFRED M. BAILEY. 



Louisiana is the winter liome of the millions of migratory 

 birds that push northward each year as spring melts the icy 

 barrier between the north and the south. And because 

 Louisiana has the inheritance of the rest of the nation in her 

 keeping, she has a great responsibility that has not been real- 

 ized until within the last few years. 



For a long time now this state has been considered one of 

 the black sheep of the country in the protection of our wild 

 fowl, and much of the criticism of the past has been well 

 founded. Indeed, that is what makes present day difficulties 

 so hard to overcome; and yet, through the efficient work of 

 the present Commissioner of the Department of Conservation, 

 Mr. M. L. Alexander, with the sincere cooperation of a few 

 true sportsmen, notably, Mr. E. A. Mcllhenny of Avery Island, 

 La., the state is now able to take her place in the front rank in 

 conservation of our wild life. Through the generosity of 

 Mr. Mcllhenny and other wealthy people, there have been 

 given the state four vast areas amounting to a total of over 

 180,000 acres of marsh land, where birds may rest and feed, 

 secure from molestation. And that the birds take advantage 

 of this great refuge, may be seen by the number of mallards 

 that were caught in a run of sixty muskrat traps. Thirty-eight 

 mallards were taken from sixty traps in a single day, and 

 the swamp men do not set their traps in favorable places for 

 birds, either. 



I have never seen Louisiana reported as a great state for 

 birds ; in fact, I aways thought of Florida as being the bird 

 state of the union. Louisiana is not limited to game birds, 

 but has her great heronries that include practically ninety per 

 cent of the Snowy and Arnerican Egrets of the country, ac- 

 cording to statistics given me. Also Roseate Spoonbills, 

 Wood Ibis, Wards, Louisiana, Little Blue and Green herons, 

 White and Glossy Ibis, and Sandhill Cranes are among our 

 breeding birds. These heronries were guarded by men with 

 Winchesters this spring, and gradually the "cajuns" in that 



