122 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



CHEAP SPORT FOR INFLUENTIAL 

 VIOLATORS. 



There is many a man who would 

 gladly pay ."fn for the i)rivilege of killing 

 a Canada goose, provided he was sure 

 that this was the only penalty he must 

 l>ay and that he would not be prosecuted 

 and branded as a man unwMling to play 

 fair with his brother sportsmen. Yet thero 

 are men in this country today who art 

 enjoying this privilege, or rather steal- 

 ing it, at the low rate of $2.50 per viola- 

 tion. It was only as recently as Septem- 

 ber 23, 1919, that William F. Taubel, a 

 wealthy citizen of Riverside, New Jersey, 

 was fined $5 by a United States District 

 Court in Trenton, New Jersey, for violat- 

 ing the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, in 

 that he decoyed to a blind and killed 

 two Canada geese. Since that time the 

 same .iudge who imposed the fine in the 

 Taubel case has fined other violators of 

 the same law as low as $2.50. 



These fines contrast rather glaringly 

 with a fine of $1,000 imposed on Octo- 

 ber 22 of the same year, also in Trenton, 

 New Jersey, on Emilo Trowti, an alien 

 resident of West Amwell, New Jersey. 

 Trowti was found guilty of violating the 

 New Jersey game laws, and was surely 

 deserving of his punishment, as he was 

 caught with a bag containing forty-eight 

 song and insectivorous birds. However, 

 fines similar to the first ones will surely 

 cheapen the federal law and make diffi- 

 cult the enforcement of the Migratory 

 Bird Treaty Act. 



It is gratifying to know that other 

 district judges in the United States do 

 not share the views of the one who im- 

 posed these low fines. In Wisconsin 

 three hunters were recently fined $100 

 each for attempting to kill ducks after 

 sunset, while in Connecticut a violator 

 was sentenced to three months in jail for 

 a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty 

 Act. It is only by stringent methods 

 that the true intent and meaning of 

 this act can be carried out. 



WATCH FOR BANDED DUCKS. 



All waterfowl should be carefully ex- 

 amined to ascertain whether or not they 

 are banded. The Bureau of Biological 

 Survey, United States Department of 

 Agi'iculture, Washington, D. C, and sev- 

 eral individuals are making a practice of 

 banding waterfowl, to ascertain their 



migratory lines of flight, and it is quite 

 necessary that full reports regarding the 

 taking of any banded bird be made to the 

 proper authorities. 



QUAIL IMMUNE TO STRYCHNINE 

 POISONING. 



Important evidence has been secured 

 regarding the comparative immunity of 

 quail to strychnine poisoning. Field 

 observations and feeding experiments con- 

 ducted in California showed that one 

 valley quail can eat grain containing 

 enough strychnine to kill 12 ground squir- 

 rels without showing the slightest ill 

 effect from the poison. A number of 

 similar experiments on a mountain quail 

 and a bobwhite gave like results. The 

 information thus gained will tend to allay 

 fears in certain quarters that poisoning 

 campaigns against ground squirrels result 

 disastrously to these valuable game birds. 

 Investigations in Saskatchewan, Canada, 

 have proved that grouse are equally 

 immune to strychnine poisoning. Ann. 

 Rpt. U. S. Dcpt. Agric. 



BIOLOGICAL SURVEY TAKES OVER 

 WORK OF AMERICAN BIRD-BAND- 

 ING ASSOCIATION. 



The Bureau of Biological Survey, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C, has taken over the work, good 

 will, effects, and recoi'ds of the American 

 Bird Banding Association, formerly con- 

 ducted from headquarters at the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History in New 

 York City. In the future, therefore, 

 the issue of bands and information rela- 

 tive to the work will be from this office, 

 to which all records of birds banded and 

 recovered, vshould be sent. There will, 

 of course, be no further dues or initia- 

 tion fees. 



In taking over the work of this 

 association, the Biological Survey is 

 particularly desirous of retaining your 

 hearty coopei'ation, upon which a large 

 part of our success will depend. 



The work is to be advanced along two 

 principal lines : first, the trapping and 

 banding of waterfowl, especially ducks 

 and geese on both their breeding and 

 wintering grounds ; and second, the sys- 

 tematic trapping of land birds as initiated 

 by Mr. S. Prentiss Baldwin. By main- 

 taining volunteer trapping stations at 



