398 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



was an important nursery of gulls, terns, 

 ducks, and cormorants in summer, and 

 a safe harbor for wild fowl during the 

 spring and fall migrations. Huron and 

 Siskiwit islands, lying in Lake Superior, 

 and the homes of innumerable herring 

 gulls, were made perpetual bird sanctu- 

 aries, and an Audubon warden took up 

 his lonely watch to guard them against 

 all comers. 



INoddy terns, on the Bird Key reservation. Dry 

 Tortiigas, Florida. The noddies build their nests of 

 twigs, moss, and sea shells in the bay cedar bushes 



Away down at the mouth of Tampa 

 Bay, Florida, is the ninety-acre island 

 of Passage Key. Here the wild bird 

 life of the Gulf Coast has swarmed in 

 the mating season since the white man 

 first knew the country. Thousands of 

 herons of \-ari()Us species, as well as terns 

 and shore birds, make this their home. 

 The dainty little ground doves flutter 



in and out among the cactus on the shel- 

 tered sides of the sand dunes; plovers 

 and sandpipers chase one another along 

 the beaches, and the burrowing owls 

 hide in their holes by night and explore 

 the island by day. 



When this place was described to 

 President Roosevelt, he immediately de- 

 clared that birds must not be killed here 

 any longer without the consent of the 

 Secretary of Agriculture. With one 

 stroke of his pen, he l)rought this de- 

 sired condition into existence, and Mrs. 

 Asa Pilisbury was duly appointed to 

 protect the island. She is one of the 

 few" women bird wardens in America. 



These things happened in the early 

 days of government work for the pro- 

 tection of water birds. The Audubon 

 Society had found a new field for en- 

 deavor, which was highly prolific in re- 

 sults. With all the limited means at 

 its command, the work of ornithological 

 exploration was carried forward. Every 

 island, mud flat, and sand bar along the 

 coast of the Mexican Gulf, from Texas 

 to Key West, was visited by trained 

 ornithologists, who reported their find- 

 ings to the New York office. From here 

 they were hurried to Washington for 

 the approval of Dr. T. S. Palmer of 

 the U. S. Biological Survey, and of Mr. 

 Frank Bond, of the General Land Office, 

 where the executive orders were prepared 

 for the President's signature. 



The Breton Island reser^•ati()n off the 

 coast of Louisiana, including scores of 

 islands and bars, was established in 

 190-1. Six additional reservations were 

 soon afterward createtl along the west 

 coast of Florida, thus extending a per- 

 petual guardiansliip o\er the colonies of 

 sea and coastwise birds in that terri- 

 tory, — the pitiful remnants of the vast 

 rookeries whicli had ])een despoiled to 

 add to the profits of the millinery trade. 



The work was early started in the 



