No. 4.] KKPOKT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 341 



Suggestions for Legislation for the Protection of the Birds. 



The progressive decrease in the numbers of fresh-water 

 wild fowl, shore birds and game birds necessitates the enact- 

 ment and enforcement of laws prohibiting the pursuit or 

 killing of those birds at all times of the year except the fall 

 months. This should be the only legalized shooting season. 

 The season should be made as nearly uniform as possible, 

 otherwise the law will be difficult to enforce. A people who 

 continue to retain on their statute l)ooks a law which allows 

 bird shooting froui July 15 to ]\Iay 30 must expect a con- 

 tinued decrease of these valuable birds. 



Further provision should be made for reservations or bird 

 refuges, and those species that are in greatest danger of 

 extinction should be protected everywhere at all times. As 

 Ornithologist of the State Board of AgTiculture, the writer 

 has persistently advocated the establishment of public res- 

 ervations for the protection of birds and game. Such bird 

 refuges as are maintained by the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies and the Bureau of Biological Survey have 

 demonstrated the feasibility of not only preventing the exter- 

 mination of birds, but the possil)ility of greatly increasing 

 their numbers. We may thus restore to the country such spe- 

 cies as are not already too near extinction to admit of such 

 restoration. Already Massachusetts has made some progi-ess 

 in this res])ect. Through the efforts of Ivlr. George IT. 

 Mackay, the town of Nantucket nuiintains a warden on the 

 island of IMuskeget during the summer of each year; thus 

 one man has been instrumental in increasing the terns on the 

 island by thousands. The State has taken the island of 

 Penikese for a leper station, and Di-. Parker, the superin- 

 tendent, ]u*otects the terns and other birds there with ex- 

 cellent results. The Commissioners on Fisheries and Game 

 have control of a large tract of land on Martha's Vineyard 

 for the protection of the pinnated grouse or heath hen and 

 other birds. 



As a preliminary step to a campaign for the purpose of 

 securing other State reservations, correspondence with the 

 State, county and city ]iark commissioners was opened, to 



