Auk 



ICO DuTCHER, Report of Committee on Bird Protection. f*? 



siderable work in trying to get better legislation, in which effort 

 all the Virginia members of the A. O. U. should join. 



Washington. 



Legislation. — The bird law is very limited in its scope and only 

 protects song birds. An effort will be made at the next session 

 of the legislature (January, 1903) to have the A. O. U. model law 

 passed. 



Audubon Work. — There is no Audubon Society in the State, 

 and little has been done in bird protection work as yet. 



An interesting incident regarding the tameness of sea gulls is 

 related by Sergeant Albert I. Smith of Battery I, First Artillery, U. 

 S. A. : " It may interest you to hear of an incident that was part of 

 my daily pastime while stationed at Fort Canby, which is a lonely 

 post, sticking up on the jagged coast cliffs. There were innumer- 

 able sea gulls inhabiting the rocks and during the rigorous winter 

 months I noticed that the poor birds scarcely caught sufficient 

 food from the stormy waters of the coast. I began by depositing 

 among the rocks the collected remains from our mess table after 

 each meal. The feathered indigents readily understood my pur- 

 pose and gathered in vast numbers to partake of our soldier food. 

 Soon they grew exceedingly tame and particularly alert for the 

 bugle's mess call, the notes of which no doubt, were as welcome 

 to them as to us. Round and round they would circle, screaming 

 for joy, and when I appeared on the rocks with their food box they 

 would flutter about me like gentle barn-yard poultry, scrambling 

 over my body or alighting on my wrists to peck a morsel from 

 my fingers." 



The above story is vouched for by Mr. William H. Kobbe, who 

 says: "The gull story is doubtless true. I have often seen the 

 Battery cooks thus feed the birds, which became so tame as to 

 become a nuisance, walking up and down the road and even into 

 the kitchen. I can hardly believe that the birds could distinguish 

 mess from any other call, but it is possible that all the calls during, 

 the middle of the day had the same effect upon them." 



