NATIONAL BIRD RESERVATIONS 209 



Another type of reservation is the refuge established on the reclamation 

 projects in the west. It comprises merely a narrow strip of land bordering 

 the reservoir and is set aside to afford the birds a resting place on their 

 journeys north and south. Some of these reservations were created before 

 construction work was completed and before there was any water to attract 

 the birds, in order to afford protection as soon as the reservoirs were filled 

 and the birds began to visit them. One-third of all the reservations belong 

 in this class. 



While in most cases the refuges are isolated and some of them very 

 difficult to visit, others, like Pelican Island and Mosquito Inlet, Florida, are 

 readily accessible. The Deer Flat Reservation in Idaho seems destined to 

 become something of a resort for the people of Boise and Nampa on account 

 of the facilities for boating on the reservoir, and since the Niobrara Reserva- 

 tion, three miles from Valentine, Nebraska, has been stocked with a herd 

 of big game, it attracts many visitors. On Forrester Island, Alaska, during 

 the summer, is a camp of more than two hundred fishermen of various 

 nationalities, and on the recently established Aleutian Reservation are two 

 important settlements, Dutch Harbor and Unalaska, and several small 

 villages of natives. 



Kinds of Birds Protected 



The birds which have been provided with homesteads by the National 

 Government are chiefly marsh birds or waterfowl which nest in colonies. 

 On the refuges in the Gulf District they comprise laughing gulls, terns of 

 several kinds, brown pelicans, Florida cormorants, and several species of 

 herons. On the reservations on the Great Lakes the herring gull is the 

 principal species. On the interior lakes of Oregon are numbers of Canada 

 geese, Caspian terns, California gulls, white pelicans and western grebes. 

 These lakes formerly furnished many grebe skins for the millinery trade 

 before they were protected by Executive Order. On the islands off the 

 coast of California, Oregon and Washington, are found such birds as the 

 western gull, the ashy, forked-tailed, and Kseding's petrels, the tufted 

 puffin, Cassin's auklet, the remarkable rhinoceros auklet, pigeon and Cali- 

 fornia guillemots, Baird's, Brandt's and Farallon cormorants. On the 

 Alaska islands are colonies of Arctic sea birds, such as auklets, petrels, 

 puffins and northern gulls. The Yukon Delta Reservation is one of the 

 greatest breeding grounds for ducks and geese, including that of the rare 

 Emperor goose. On the Hawaiian Island Reservation x in the Mid-Pacific 

 is Laysan Island, one of the most famous bird colonies in the world where 



1 Many papers on the bird fauna of the reservations have been published and readers 

 who may wish to consult them will find the titles and references in Circular 87 of the Biological 

 Survey, entitled "Reservations for the Protection of Wild Life" (pp. 22-29). 



