Vol. XXI 

 1904 



I DuTCHER, Report of Committee on Bird Protection. I4S 



City Council of New Orleans August 25, 1903, since the organiza- 

 tion of the Audubon Society. Protection for a host of insectivo- 

 rous birds could almost certainly have been secured in either case 

 had the Audubon Society been willing to compromise matters with 

 the bird dealers. The crux was the trapping of Cardinals and 

 Mockingbirds. The proposed bill in either case would have been 

 the A. O. U. model law, and as this prevented the killing and trap- 

 ping of any song or insectivorous bird whatsoever, the bird dealers 

 stepped in and used their influence to secure the substitution of a 

 bill drawn up in an ignorant and careless manner, and from the 

 very nature of the point of view of its framers, giving practically 

 no protection to song and insectivorous birds, except in the case 

 of the city ordinance, which prohibits the sale of all birds save a 

 few excepted species, for ornamental purposes. The few non- 

 game birds protected from the gunner are those that happen to be 

 the desiderata of the trappers. As these birds had to be men- 

 tioned to entrench the privileges of the trappers, it was no trouble 

 to mention that they should be protected from the gunners. The 

 assortment is, nevertheless, rather a peculiar one : Cardinal, 

 Mockingbird, Oriole, Bluebird, Nighthawk, and Whip-poor-will. 

 When the bird dealers drew up their law before the Louisiana leg- 

 islature, they appeared to throw in with the names of the cardinal 

 and the mockingbird, which are not to be molested except for 

 ' domesticating purposes,' the names of a few other birds of which 

 they happened to think, so as to appear to be concerned in the 

 protection of the song and insectivorous birds of the State. In 

 the matter of general protection of non-game birds, the city ordi- 

 nance copies the State law. 



" Though the actual results of legislation in favor of non-game 

 birds is small, the question has been thoroughly ventilated, and the 

 moment of the whole matter has been impressed on some part of 

 the population. Education as to bird protection has been secured 

 and their integrity and not the stock of their information will be at 

 fault if legislators before whom the question is brought in future 

 do not uphold the decision of enlightenment in half the States in 

 the Union. 



" As to the protection of game, the society has been able to pur- 

 sue an active course, as the game laws of the State are more nearly 



