Vol. XX 

 1903 



'^"l DuTCHER, Report of Committee oti Bird Protection. 1^3 



consider the slaughter of the birds as a legitimate trade, and 

 encourage it rather than otherwise. 



"On June 29, 1899, I visited Eagle Lake and found the hunters 

 encamped on the south end : they had a boat, and mornings and 

 evenings they skirted the edge of the lake and shot every grebe 

 they could see. I asked if they did not often shoot the parents 

 from the young ; and the answer was : ' Oh, yes, but the young 

 soon die. We do not shoot the mother if we see the squab.' But 

 they had killed four or five young that morning. Their season 

 opened about the first of May, and at the time of my visit they 

 claimed to have secured about six hundred skins; fifteen to 

 eighteen grebes was considered a good day's work. In preparing 

 the skin they strip it off, cutting down the back. An abundance 

 of plaster of Paris is sprinkled on, and after a little drying the 

 skin is ready for shipment. Their only market was in San 

 Francisco ; but I could not get the name of the firm. The last of 

 July the hunters moved their seat of operations ; but on the 23rd 

 of September I met them returning. I know nothing of their 

 further operations that year. 



" Not knowing the condition of the birds on Tule Lake before 

 the shooting began, I cannot form a very good estimate as to the 

 injury sustained. 



" At the time of my visit to Tule Lake this year the water was 

 very low, and most of the tules of the shallower portions of the 

 lake were beaten down. I walked out into the very center of the 

 lake, the water coming scarcely above my ankles most of the time. 

 Going into the marsh only an American Bittern was seen, but as I 

 came out I started a flock of fifteen grebes, which flapped away 

 with discordant cries. Later I found numbers of waders, chief 

 among which were Black-necked Stilts. 



" The lower end of the lake was much deeper, and there was a 

 little open water between the bunches of tules ; on this water 

 were ducks, coots and grebes in abundance. Considering the 

 lake from what I saw at this end, I should say that the grebes are 

 still abundant, but taking the lake as a whole I do not think there 

 are many grebes on it. I do not think, however, that the upper, 

 shallower end of the lake is a good place for grebes, at this season 

 of the year at least; further, there might have been numbers of 



