96 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
forgotten how plentiful birds really were fifteen years ago, before 
‘“hat-birds’’ and aigrettes, and birds’ wings and heads were 
worn, before egg-collecting became a serious menace, and when the 
shot-guns were fewer, by half a million or so, than they now are. 
for the whole thirty states represented in the diagrams, the aver- 
age of loss in bird life for their combined area ts forty-six per cent. 
Balanced Areas.—'Three states, fully represented by re- 
ports, show that in them the balance of bird life has been main- 
tained. They are North Carolina, Oregon and California. In 
North Carolina there has been a serious loss in the ducks, geese 
and other waterfowl of the coast, but we gladly assume that 
it has been made good through an actual increase in other por- 
tions of the state. The conditions for the preservation of bird 
life in the mountainous and heavily timbered interior portions of 
the state seem exceptionally good, and the usual agencies for de- 
struction are happily absent. But for the destruction of the game 
birds, we would be able to report a balanced condition for 
Nebraska, and it seems as if it would be an easy matter for that 
state to occupy the position of Kansas. 
Areas of Increase.—It is a great pleasure to be able to re- 
port four states in which bird life is on the increase, instead of 
on the decline. They are 
KANSAS, WASHINGTON, and 
WYOMING, UTAH. 
At present Kansas seems to be the banner state for bird pro- 
tection, and so far as we can discover, the chief cause of it is 
to be found in this charming law: 
‘* Section 6.—It shall be unlawful at any time 70 buy, sell, bar- 
ter, ship or offer for sale, barter or shipment within the state of 
Kansas, any bird or birds named in Section 1.’’ In this law and 
its enforcement are to be found the reasons for the great abun- 
dance of bird life observed last spring during a six days’ drive 
through central Kansas, when flocks of quail ran along the road, 
sides, as tame as blackbirds, and rabbits were equally abundant 
and fearless. 
The western part of the state of Washington reveals the un- 
common paradox of a locality being filled up with new bird forms 
because of the clearing away of the timber! Ordinarily, those 
forests are too dense for insectivorous birds ; and now, as man 
