258 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



sought by whalers in the North Atlantic that it has been reduced al- 

 most to extirpation. This species has long ceased to be an item of 

 commercial importance. The Whaling Treaty Act of 1936 should 

 tend toward conservation of whales. Nevertheless, during 1937-38 

 there were 54,604 whales killed, a yearly high for all time. Of these, 

 46,039 were captured in the Antarctic region. What effect World War 

 II has had on whales and the whaling industry is problematic. 

 There was need for whale products in war industries, but there was 

 also demand for the use of ships employed in whaling for other war 

 purposes. Moreover, the risk in whaling during war times tended to 

 curtail the industry. 



There are many North American birds that are in a more or less 

 precarious situation as to their future existence. Some of these, such 

 as Leach's petrel, reddish egret, Franklin's grouse, southern white- 

 tailed ptarmigan, sage hen, golden plover, and upland plover, it would 

 appear are holding their own, or possibly are on the uptrend, though 

 once greatly reduced in numbers and hard pressed. Others are in the 

 more precarious class. The great white heron population of extreme 

 southern Florida shows no appreciable increase, although protection is 

 afforded these birds on the Great White Heron National Wildlife 

 Refuge, where about half of all birds dwell. In October 1938 Alex- 

 ander Sprunt, Jr., counted a total of 585 great white herons ; in Febru- 

 ary 1941 Harold L. Peters counted 551, of which 290 were on the 

 Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge. The roseate spoonbill, 

 beautifully colored and grotesque of bill as the name implies, is possi- 

 bly in more danger as a nester in the United States than the great white 

 heron, though actually at present more birds exist. It is found in the 

 same general region of Florida as the great white heron, but has a 

 supplementary chance for survival in a larger colony in Texas. There 

 are also a considerable number of the birds in Mexico. The Florida 

 nesting birds are decreasing in numbers. The Texas nesters have 

 increased, but are in constant danger of destruction through oil 

 development. 



Another strictly American bird being preserved by refuge manage- 

 ment is the trumpeter swan, the largest of American waterfowl. For- 

 merly nesting from northwestern Iowa and central Nebraska north- 

 westerly to central British Columbia and Alberta, it is now limited 

 during the breeding season to the vicinity of Yellowstone National 

 Park, Wyo., and the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Mont., 

 and to a refuge at an undesignated locality in western Canada. At 

 each of these breeding areas, the birds are being carefully guarded. In 

 the Yellowstone-Red Rock Lakes regions there has been an increase 

 from 33 birds in 1934 to 211 birds in 1941. In Hawaii, the nene, or 

 Hawaiian goose, has faced destruction by man and the mongoose. 



