Vol. XXI 

 1904 



I Y)VTcnKK, Report of Cotniniitee 071 Bird Protection. I 67 



50 Laughing Gulls. One of these has for many years been used 

 as a farm and the other as a pasture, but no complaint was ever 

 heard of this richly soiled island being injured by birds. Seal 

 Island was also similarly inhabited by terns, previous to the millin- 

 ery demand for their skins, but now is without birds, except 

 Petrels ; yet it has an abundance of grass and clover in spots. 



" Certain other islands, as Otter Island, Great Spoon, Cone, and 

 the Brothers Islands, and a large part of Little Spoon Island, are 

 covered with a deep stratum (in some places certainly three feet 

 deep) of red vegetable loam, quite unproductive. 



" As striking instances of the unproductiveness of the pure 

 vegetable loam, Matinicus Rock and Machias Seal Island are to 

 be mentioned. At Matinicus Rock successful gardening is con- 

 fined to three or four vegetables, cabbage, endive, parsnips, and 

 perhaps another, potatoes, beans, etc., dwarfing. In such crevices 

 and pockets as contain soil, it is wholly of the kind under con- 

 sideration. 



"At Machias Seal Island the soil is quite similar, and similar 

 results were found until gravel from the ash heap was abundantly 

 supplied, when the conditions improved. 



" The complaint against pasture damage was from Little Spoon 

 Island. This is an island of diversified conditions, forest or vege- 

 table loam, shallow gravel over ledges, and some profitable drift 

 loam. The pasture is not abundant, and the complaint is wrongly 

 placed upon the birds. 



"In conclusion. Heron Island affords interesting conditions. 

 There the grass crop was good, but not equal to that of many 

 other islands. The flock of sheep was not equal to its pasturing 

 possibilities, much of the grass maturing and raising seed. It was 

 there very noticeable that the sheep fed very largely in the prox- 

 imity of the gulls' nests; that part of the island where fewest gulls 

 were breeding was little grazed by the sheep. There it was quite 

 evident that the gulls did not render the feed distasteful to the 

 sheep, as the latter could have abandoned the part of the island 

 where the birds were abundant." 



Audubon work. — The Society was organized late m 1902 and 

 now has a membership of 200, scattered throughout the State. 

 One of its objects is " To cherish an interest in birds and encour- 



