SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 13 



stringent laws against all forms of devastation, while the 

 effective co-operation of the various bureaus at Washington 

 may be then enlisted for the purposes of investigation. 



Fortunately, there are now in existence, principally 

 under the control of the Department of Agriculture, over 

 seventy of these National Bird Reserves, comprising many 

 hundreds of square miles. 



It is to be noted, however, that with the exception of 

 certain tracts upon the Florida coast and its outlying Keys, 

 and an island in Alabama, not one of these existed in the 

 whole great eastern area of our country upon this side of 

 the Mississippi until the creation, in the present year of 

 1916, of the Sieur de Monts National Monument in Maine. 



The especial importance of the Sieur de Monts Park 

 as a Bird Sanctuary 



The new Sieur de Monts National Park is of especial 

 interest as a Bird Reserve for three important reasons — 

 Geographical Position ; Coastal Situation upon a great route 

 of Bird Migration; and Physical Character. 



GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 



As the first National Bird Reserve east of the Missis- 

 ippi drainage basin, and the first upon the Atlantic seaboard 

 north of Florida, the setting aside of this area assumes a 

 paramount importance. Indeed, the significance of its crea- 

 tion, will, in all probability, not be fully realized until, in 

 future years, the compelling force of an awakened public 

 opinion shall have largely multiplied, along the coast and 

 among the woods, the lakes, the marshes and the mountains 

 of our whole Eastern Section, similar beneficent foundations 

 in imitation of this protot5rpe. 



Yet even when that time shall have come, the Sieur de 

 Monts Reserve must still rank first among its peers, since 

 its position is unique. It stands, in the first place, at the 

 junction and overlapping of two great faunal areas— the 



