REPORT OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES 27 
Vol. VIL., unbound, 600. 
Vol. VIIL., unbound, 600. 
One hundred and two pamphlets and ten bound volumes, a 
total of one hundred and twelve publications have been re- 
ceived. All have been stamped with the Academy stamp and 
card catalogued. The list may be published if desired. 
A. R. Crook, Librarian. 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONSER- 
VATION OF WILD LIFE 
Your committee, together with thoughtful people every- 
where, views with apprehension the rapid approach of the time 
when shall be gone forever, those conditions under which may 
exist the flora and fauna characteristic of the primeval con- 
ditions of our state. That this time is not far distant is evi- 
dent unless vigorous efforts are immediately made to check 
its advance. On all sides is the destruction of bird life by 
ignorant foreigners, to whom hunting licenses are unlawfully 
issued. Otherwise good citizens are also surely reducing, 
year by year, the numbers of our most beneficial birds, such 
as the quail and prairie chicken, while the constant clamor ot 
the sportsman for longer open seasons on the objects of his 
desire, indicates that his horizon is bounded by his own selfish 
interests rather than the rights of the future. Destruction of 
rare and beautiful plants goes on apace. Everywhere one 
finds that plants a few years ago abounding in considerable 
numbers are now totally obliterated—and the places thereof 
shall know them no more. The greed for land and dividends 
is draining our swamps wherein nest many species of birds, 
and abound numberless kinds of plants. Interesting and beau- 
tiful bits of woodland are sacrificed also to the ever-increasing 
appetite for more cultivable land, and if such woodlands be 
not destroyed, the constant pasturage leads eventually to the 
same end since the herbaceous plants are blotted out, no 
coppice develops, and the maturing of the trees leaves nothing 
to take their places when gone. 
Beholding these things, it is their desire to place the Acad- 
emy on record as thoroughly in sympathy with the efforts 
