42 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The efforts of this Department will be directed, during the com- 

 ing season, to securing the enactment of laws prohibiting the use 

 of the automatic shot-gun, a new and most dangerous weapon of 

 extermination which has recently been placed upon the market. 



In 1905 the Society took an active part in the defeat of the bill 

 to remove the restriction on spring duck-shooting, and urged the 

 passage of a bill to prohibit the cold storage of game during the 

 closed season. This latter bill, however, failed of passage. 



The Society's bill for the protection of land turtles became a 

 law. This legislation was made necessary owing to the fact that 

 Chinamen were developing a taste for box turtles which bid fair 

 to result in their extermination, especially on Long Island. 



In connection with this work of game preservation the Society 

 has inaugurated a movement by private societies and individuals 

 to establish herds of bison on government lands in such locations 

 that the bison can live as close to nature as a large range will 

 permit. 



The Wichita Forest Reserve in southwestern Oklahoma seemed 

 to afford the best opportunity for locating such a herd. The 

 Society decided to donate to the National Government a herd of 

 15 or 20 bison on the condition that the Government provide the 

 necessary fences and protection. A definite offer of 18 bison was 

 made on the above basis, and accepted by the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture. The Bvireau of Forestry and the Biological Survey have 

 both cooperated w^ith the Society and selected a site in the Wich- 

 ita Forest Reserve containing twelve square miles. 



It is the purpose of the Society to take about eight head of 

 bison from its present herd and purchase about ten others. The 

 herd thus composed will contain at least three distinct strains of 

 blood, and it is hoped that on such a large range as the animals 

 will have they will increase rapidly, and that the danger of in- 

 breeding will be reduced to a minimum. Congress will be asked 

 to appropriate $15,000 for the construction of the boundary 

 fences, and if this amount is obtained the reserve can be organ- 

 ized, fenced, and the bison turned loose in the autumn of 1906. 



LEGISLATION. 



During the session of 1905 a bill was introduced in the Legis- 

 lature at Albany authorizing the appointment of a Committee to 

 inquire into the feasibility of the acquisition of sufficient land 

 along the entire length of the Bronx River for a public Parkway, 

 and for protection of the stream from pollution and for the pres- 



