yorawe Report of Committee on Bird Protection. 5 5 
Dr. T. S. Palmer reports the enactment of a new game law in 
‘the District of Columbia, March 3, 1899, which increased the 
penalty for killing insectivorous birds, and provided for the 
inspection of cold storage rooms under certain restrictions. He 
also reports the successful organization of classes for ornitho- 
logical instruction among the school teachers of Washington, 
which were conducted by himself and Mr. H. C. Oberholser, 
with the codperation of Prof. Wm. B. Powell, superintendent of 
schools. The Biological Survey has also done most valuable 
educational work in the distribution of papers and circulars on 
Economic Ornithology. 
Mr. A. W. Anthony reports that a recent visit to Magdalena 
Bay, Lower California, shows the almost total destruction of the 
Herons by plume hunters and native Indians. This work was 
begun some four years ago, as previously reported, and the 
encouragement of plume collecting among the Indians has 
proved most disastrous. Mr. Anthony reports that the extensive 
sheep grazing in Plumas County, Cal., and elsewhere on the 
Sierra Nevada, seems to result in the extermination of the Sooty 
Grouse, Plumed Partridge, and other ground birds, as the sheep 
trample both young and nests under foot. Furthermore, the 
sheep-herders burn the underbrush over large tracts, and thus 
work great havoc on the birds. ‘Though this is against the law, 
it is almost impossible to prevent it for lack of definite evidence. 
This instance is quite parallel to the destruction by fire of vast 
tracts of lumbered regions or bark peelings in the forests of 
Pennsylvania and other States, and the almost total destruction 
of the forest-loving birds which formerly abounded there and 
would doubtless remain were the tracts allowed to grow up 
properly protected from fire. 
Visits to the Pennsylvania lumber regions during 1898 and 
1899 deeply impressed your chairman with the importance of the 
work of the Forestry Commissions and its close association with 
the question of bird protection. 
Mrs. Stevenson reports that during the past winter, when an 
unusual influx of Robins occurred in Arkansas, the gunners turned 
out in numbers, and though many birds were killed the first day, 
the arrest and conviction of a dozen or so of the would-be 
