126 
Visalia, Tulare Co., 
San Diego, 
NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
John Broder, ‘‘There is no appreciable decrease 
in bird life in this part of California, unless pos- 
sibly it isin ducks. The game laws of California 
are sufficient to protect all kinds of game birds, 
and they are well observed by oursportsmen. The 
‘small boy’ is more destructive to bird life than 
any otherclass of people. No species of birds, in 
this locality, are threatened with extinction, but 
grizzly bear, elk and antelope are almost extinct. 
[These species were formerly very abundant in 
Tulare Co.] Deer are being killed off at an 
alarming rate, and it will be only a few years, at 
the present rate of destruction, until they too 
are extinct. Lawsare sufficient, but not enforced. 
In the remote mountains they are killed in season 
and out of season, and without regard to age or 
SOX 
Lyman Belding, Only the game birds are decreasing. 
Meadow larks and a few other species are in- 
creasing. In towns where the English sparrow 
has located, orioles, black-headed grosbeaks, and 
other desirable species are seldom heard or seen. 
The prong-horn antelope and elk are nearly, or 
quite, extinct. Grizzly bears are getting very 
scarce; deer also. Washoe Indians are mainly 
responsible for the scarcity of deer in the Sierra 
Nevadas. 1, 3. 
Southern California, A. W. Anthony, Birds are holding their own very 
well. Few ‘‘hat-bird’’ fiends have infested the 
country. Hawks and owls are generally regarded 
by the farmers as friends, and protected. Jack 
rabbits and coyotes are growing less abundant 
near the settlements. Though not nearly so 
abundant as formerly, deer seem to be holding 
their own very well. A few antelope and big- 
horn are still found in eastern San Diego Co., 
but both are very rare, and can only be regarded 
as wanderers from Lower California. Sea birds 
have suffered considerably the past few years 
through the agency of the guano schooners. 
The rookeries are raided for guano at all seasons, 
and during the breeding season eggs or young 
ones are thrown over the bluffs by thousands. 
Those not destroyed in that way are eaten by the 
swarms of gulls that follow to grab the contents 
of the nests when the shags are frightened away. 
Dozens of large rookeries have been thus broken 
up. . . . A few parties have organized to hunt 
plume-birds along the Mexican coast, and have 
slaughtered a great many herons. One party of 
men who were looking for a good place to raid 
in the Gulf were killed on Tiburon Island, about 
two months ago. Both men well known to me, 
and had been killing birds in 1896 and 1897. 
