12 TiiK \\'n.sox Bulletin — No. 102 



part of the country are learning to leave the young birds 

 alone. 



Then on tlie outlying marshes and islands are the thou- 

 sands of sea birds, the beautiful Royal, Caspian, Cabot, Least 

 and Forester terns, the graceful Laughing gulls, and the 

 swift flying skimmers. It is easy for the inland states to crit- 

 icize when it appears there have been violations of the law, 

 but only when one has traveled over these different bird ref- 

 ugees can the enormous task of patrolling such a great area be 

 realized, and the impossibility of preventing all slaughter. 

 The Commission has more than a dozen boats, in charge of 

 competent men, and the reservations are constantly guarded, 

 so that men no longer shoot out the colonies of egrets, leav- 

 ing the young to die, nor rob the nests of the Roseate Spoon- 

 bill because the young are considered good eating. You 

 would be impressed by taking a boat trip along the salt 

 marshes of Louisiana. Fish is supposed to be good brain 

 food, but one trip among these people whom the Commis- 

 sion is trying to educate, will convince you that there is a 

 mistake somewhere ; and that has always been the difficulty — 

 the matter of education ; for where you can not reason, you 

 get no results. 



The terns, skimmers and gulls on the outlying islands were 

 constantly robbed of their eggs by the oystermen. Rut no 

 longer are the birds interfered with, for a few captains, suc- 

 cessfully prosecuted, have put a finish to that mode of plun- 

 dering. These little islands scattered along the coast on both 

 sides of the Mississippi^ are great out-of-door laboratories, 

 which will prove fruitful in the near future in the study of 

 bird lore. The captain of the " Royal Tern," the special pa- 

 trol boat of the Audubon Society, reported White Pelicans 

 as breeding on one of the gulf islands. Of course we all 

 know that White Pelicans breed only in the north ; but do 

 they? The plumage of young terns is being studied by the 

 State Ornithologist, Stanley Clisby Arthur, and many inter- 

 esting facts are being compiled ; in fact, Louisiana has a 

 wealth of material awaiting: to be discovered. 



