ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



509 



With the passage of tlie Lacej' Bird Law, — 

 chiefl}' through the efforts of G. O. Shields, 

 John F. Lacey, the Audubon Societies and Theo- 

 dore S. Pahner, — the United States government 

 entered actively into the very necessary practical 

 business of wild-life jjrotection. To-daj^, the 

 Biological Survey is a great power for good in 

 this direction ; and the quicker the game-protec- 

 tion department of it is provided by Congress 

 with more money, the better for us all. 



It is quite time that the sportsmen of America 

 should have substantial and continuous help in 

 the warfare they are waging in behalf of wild 

 life. It is time for all the institutions of this 

 country that are in any way interested in zoo- 

 logy to wake up, and take an active part in the 

 warfare that is going on ! The amount of accum- 

 ulated zoological knowledge is now so great that 

 we need fear no fact famine in the near future, 

 not even if every zoologist in America should en- 

 list for ten years of active campaigning in be- 

 half of wild life. If the National INIuseum, the 

 Smithsonian, the Philadelphia Academy of Sci- 

 ences, the New York Academy, the Carnegie 

 Institutions of Washington and Pittsburgh, the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Boston 

 Society of Natural History, the Field Museum 

 and the Chicago Academy of Sciences, were to 

 actively engage in wild-life protection for say, 

 ten years, can anyone doubt the enormous prac- 

 tical benefit that would result ? 



There are certain duties which civilized men 

 and women can not evade, and be respectable. 

 For zoologists to ignore the slaughter of wild 

 life is wholly wrong; and when we say only 

 that, we put the case verj' mildly. It is the 

 boitnden duty of the broad-minded and humane 

 men of to-day to take active measures toward 

 securing, for the men of the future, a fair in- 

 heritance of the marvellous wild life that still 

 exists on this continent, hut which an army of 

 annihilators is trying hard to destroy. 



It is a most singular fact that the true protec- 

 tion of wild life are now, and always have been, 

 the sportsmen and hunters who theoretically 

 should be destroyers, instead of preservers ; and 

 it is perhaps more singular still, that those 

 whose whole life's work is devoted to the study 

 of animals are so callous and indifferent to its 

 perpetuation. 



Let no closet naturalist believe for one mo- 

 ment that there is no work for him to do, in- 

 dividually. In one hour's time one practical 

 worker in this field can lay out tasks that would 

 keep an army of men busy for a year. Men 

 and money are needed, and the whole North 

 American continent is the battle-ground. The 

 present is no time for timid, half-way measures. 



Each institution of those named above should 

 put into the field at least one active and efficient 

 worker, keep him there, and pay the cost of his 

 campaign work. To do any less than this is to 

 fail in a solemn duty. 



SUCCESS OF THE BISON SUBSCRIP- 

 TION FUND. 



Immediately following the passage by Con- 

 gress in May, 1908, of the bill appropriating 

 $40,000 for the lands and fencing of the pro- 

 posed Montana National Bison Range, the pres- 

 ident of the Bison Society (W. T. Hornaday), 

 set out to raise $10,000 by subscription. That 

 fund was necessary to enable the Society to ful- 

 fil its pledge to the government that it would 

 furnish the nucleus herd as a gift, as soon as 

 the range was ready to receive it. 



It was decided that the subscription should be 

 national in scope ; and accordingly the people of 

 every state and territory were invited to partici- 

 pate, in sums from one dollar upward. The 

 call was sent to 150 mayors of cities and forty- 

 eight boards of trade, — but without securing 

 even one dollar through any one of them ! 



In view of the fact that the New York Zoo- 

 logical Society already had presented a herd of 

 bison to the national government, the members 

 of that Society were not called upon to sub- 

 scribe, save through the membership of a few in 

 other organizations. At the same time, three 

 members of the N. Y. Z. S. generously helped to 

 close the canvass with large subscriptions, to the 

 great relief of the chief canvasser. Mr. Charles 

 E. Senff gave $1,000, Mr. William P. Clyde 

 $500, and ^Ir. Andrew Carnegie .$'250. 



The campaign for the bison fund lasted nine 

 long months, but finally closed in February, 

 1909, with a total of $10,560.50. It contained 

 a number of surprises ; chief of which were the 

 following : 



The W^est, — with but slight exceptions, — was 

 remarkably unresponsive, and makes a pitiable 

 showing in the total. The East has cheerfully 

 borne 80 per cent, of the burden. 



The women of America subscribed more than 

 one-tenth of the entire sum; and a lady of Mas- 

 sachusetts (Mrs. Ezra R. Thayer, of Boston), 

 raised one-twentieth of the whole fund ! 



The funds now in hand are sufficient to pur- 

 chase forty-two pure-blood bison, and deliver 

 them upon the range. The government is now 

 acquiring and fencing the twenty-eight square 

 miles of range that were selected by the Bison 

 Societ\-, and it is hoped that the fence will be 

 completed in time that the nucleus herd can be 

 delivered next October. 



