NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 51 



in arousing the press and people of the country at large to sup- 

 port the demand for a fund of $50,000, with which to enforce 

 the law. After about five weeks of very strenuous efforts and 

 a prolonged fight in the Senate, the measure came to a vote on 

 April 14. The result was a three-fourths majority for an ap- 

 propriation of $50,000, but the debate showed conclusively that 

 the validity and constitutionality of the law will be fought at 

 every point by the enemies of birds, and a fierce fight will be 

 made to defeat the proposed treaty with Canada. This means 

 that the Society must continue its efforts to arouse the public 

 in behalf of that treaty, and secure the ratification by the usual 

 two-thirds vote. 



The campaign for the protection of the birds of the world 

 from the millinery trade, which was being vigorously prose- 

 cuted in England, Germany, France and Holland, has been com- 

 pletely halted by the European war. In England the Hobhouse 

 bill, similar in character to our migratory bird bill, was actually 

 on the point of being passed by the House of Commons when 

 war was declared, and only urgency measures were considered 

 in Parliament. 



A successful effort was made in California by the game 

 dealers and market gunners to destroy the Flint-Carey law pro- 

 hibiting the sale of game. A great contest arose over this issue, 

 and was conducted vigorously throughout the entire year. The 

 matter came up for popular vote on a referendum on Novem- 

 ber 3, and the law was destroyed by a majority of 8,153. This 

 defeat was partly due to a public exposition of the duck shoot- 

 ing proclivities of the President of the California State Game 

 and Fish Commission, Mr. F. M. Newbert, and on the whole it 

 is a great step backwards for California. 



In the months of January and February, 1914, Director 

 Hornaday delivered at Yale University a course of lectures be- 

 fore the Forestry School, on "Wild Life Conservation in Theory 

 and Practice." In November these lectures were published in 

 text-book form by the Yale University Press, and in the interest 

 of wild life protection, your committee has authorized the pur- 

 chase of two hundred copies, and their distribution among the 

 universities, colleges and forestry schools in the United States 

 with the recommendation that they be used as text books. 



