40 Ditcher, Protection of Gulls and Terns. Ij""- 



was to transfer all of the web-footed birds, except ducks, geese, 

 brant and swan, to the wild bird section, for which there is no 

 open season. The amendment also removed by a special clause 

 the grebes and bitterns to the protected class. The Thayer 

 Fund distributed large numbers of linen warning notices in the 

 coastwise counties of the State. 



The writer, accompanied by a State game warden, visited all of 

 the cage-bird dealers in New York City. Many of them were 

 found with protected birds in their possession and suits were at 

 once commenced. In every case but one the dealers paid the 

 fines rather than defend the suit. It most effectually broke up 

 the trade in native birds, the dealers now being content to traffic 

 in canaries or imported wild birds. A visit was also made early 

 in October to Wantaugh, Long Island, and a taxidermist's shop 

 was examined. Fifty-nine gulls {Lanis de/awarcnsis and Z. argen- 

 tatus smithsoiiianus) were found, some still in the flesh and others 

 in various stages of preparation for millinery ornaments. Suit for 

 the sum of $1510, fines, was at once commenced by the attorney 

 for the State. 



Large numbers of the retail milliners and large; department 

 stores in New York City have been visited by the writer and a 

 notice calling attention to the law has been served. In many 

 instances the retail dealers returned to the wholesale dealers stock 

 lately purchased, on the ground that it was illegal to have the 

 same in possession for sale, and they were unwilling to take any 

 risks of prosecution. It is believed that only a few of the smaller 

 wholesale houses still traffic to any extent in gulls and terns, and 

 some of these claim that the stock they are now trying to dispose 

 of was procured before the law went into effect. If this is the 

 case, the dealers are trying to work off upon the women of the 

 State some material that is old and out of date. It is proper to 

 say in this connection that there are many wholesale millinery 

 houses in this city that will not handle, under any circumstances, 

 the plumage of any wild North American birds, notably the mem- 

 bers of the Wholesale Millinery Protective Association. 



New Jersey. — -The A. O. U. model law was introduced as a 

 bill by Senator Joseph Cross at the request of the Audubon Soci- 

 ety. Dr. Palmer and the writer appeared before the .Senate Game 



