Vol. XIV 



1897 



J Report of Coiinnittee on Bird Profection. 27 



threatening the extermination of the Petrels, and the market trade 

 the extermination of the Murres and Gulls. 



" I write now seeking the aid of the A. O. U. in putting an 

 end to this nefarious traffic. Two steps are needful : 



" I. A California law must be secured prohibiting the sale 

 of wild birds' eggs. This will stop the shipping of eggs to the 

 markets. 



"2. An order must be obtained from the U. S. Lighthouse 

 Board instructing the Farallon keepers to stop gathering eggs, 

 and to keep off possible poachers that might want eggs for their 

 own consumption. 



" A committee from the California Academy of Sciences can 

 attend to the California law. I shall present the matter in a 

 lecture I am to deliver on the Farallons, October 19, before the 

 Academy. 



" It remains for the A. O. U. to secure the action of the Light- 

 house Board. 



"All this can be accomplished this fall, and another season the 

 birds will be allowed to breed, and the rookeries will be preserved. 

 Kindly send me copies of the New York and Massachusetts laws 

 relating to bird protection, especially of sea birds." 



(A popular article, confirming Mr. Loomis's statement regard- 

 ing the wanton destruction of eggs on the Farallons, appeared in 

 'Leslie's Popular Monthly,' New York, November, 1896, pp. 

 589-597 — ten illustrations.) 



In response to Mr. Loomis's appeal for aid, your Chairman at 

 once, wrote to the Lighthouse Board as follows: — 



Xkw York, Oct. 3, 1896. 

 The Hon. Skcrktary Lighthousk Board, 

 Was hi no-ton, D. C. 

 Dear Sir : — 



As Chairman of the American Ornithologists' Union Committee 

 on the protection of North American Birds, I deem it my duty to call 

 to your attention an abuse that you have power to abate, /. e., the destruc- 

 tion of the eggs of certain sea birds that breed on South Farallon Island. 

 I send you herewith a copy of a letter received from Prof. Loomis, of 

 the California Academy of Sciences, together v^ath a copy of a paper 

 written by him on California birds in which, on pp. 356-35S, he calls 

 attention to the abuse. 



