Vol. XXI 



1904 



I DuTCHER, Report of Cotniniitee on Bird Protection. IQ"^ 



Warden system. — No wardens were employed by the Thayer 

 Fund. The State officials, however, are alive to their duties. 

 Mr. J. A. Acklen, State Game Warden, writes as follows: "The 

 enforcement of our laws for the protection of both game and non- 

 game birds is a difficult task in this State. I have labored for 

 years on the subject, and only succeeded in our last Legislature in 

 establishing the Department of Game, the whole expense of which 

 Department I am bearing out of my individual means. You may 

 judge from this as to how I feel on the subject." 



AuduboTi work. — There is practically none done in the State at 

 the present time. The following editorial from ' The Nashville 

 American,' of March 19, is such excellent advice to farmers that 

 it is given in full in the hope that many thousands of the tillers of 

 the soil will read and follow its counsel : " A birdless land is a 

 dreary land ; where the silence is unbroken by the song of birds 

 there is loneliness that is oppressive. Imagine a farm without the 

 cheering presence and music of birds. Think of the fields and 

 woods barren of feathered songsters. They are well worth pro- 

 tecting and preserving on purely sentimental grounds, but aside 

 from sentiment they are worth protecting because of their great 

 value to the farmer and gardener and to nearly every tree and 

 flower that grows. They are as truly the friends of the farmer as 

 the seasons — the wind and the rain and the sunshine, the light 

 and warmth, the frost and dew, and all the elements of nature's 

 alchemy. He is a primitive farmer who does not appreciate the 

 value of birds." 



Texas. — Legislation. — During the legislative session of 1903 a 

 ^ame and bird law was adopted that is one of the best in force in 

 the United States. Section 2, which covers the non-game birds, is 

 the A. O. U. model. The radical change caused by the passage 

 of this most excellent and much needed legislation has caused a 

 flutter of organized opposition to the enforcement of the law by the 

 pothunters and market shooters, who are combining to test the 

 constitutionality of the law. On the other hand, the true and 

 enlightened sportsmen of the State, together with the bird lovers 

 and others who believe that birds have an economic value, are 

 prepared to defend the law and propose that it shall be upheld by 

 the best legal talent obtainable. That the Commonwealth owns 



