Xo. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 97 



refugees, has made regulations to stop the destruction of birds 

 for millinery purposes throughout her vast empire in the Malay 

 Archipelago, the home of the birds of paradise. The killing of 

 these birds in the Dutch possessions is limited now to three 

 species, and shooting is totally prohibited in two groups of 

 islands, as well as upon large reservations in New Guinea. By 

 these means it is believed that the extermination of the rarer 

 birds will be prevented. 



Following the lead of the United States, Canada enacted last 

 year a law prohibiting the importation of plumage of wild birds 

 for commercial purposes, which went into effect on January 1, 

 1915. The above are some of the most important or far- 

 reaching enactments of the year. Other lesser and local laws 

 cannot be chronicled here. 



Photographixg Birds with Ixsects. 

 Owing to the demand for ocular evidence showing the de- 

 struction of insect pests by birds, some time was spent during 

 the late spring and early summer in attempts to photograph 

 birds eating insects or feeding them to their young. Com- 

 paratively few such photographs have been taken heretofore. 

 Good reasons for this lack of such pictures at once present 

 themselves whenever the photographer makes the attempt. A 

 bird may be seen going regularly to a colony of insects on 

 which it is feeding, but the moment the camera comes on the 

 scene the bird is likely to desert the spot and not feed there 

 again during the day. The chances of success are better if 

 one finds a bird's nest containing young, sets up his camera 

 near by, and, retiring with tube or thread to spring the shutter, 

 awaits the coming of the parent birds with food. Even here, 

 however, the most patient waiter may be foiled. j\lany a bird, 

 when catching insects for its young, swallows them or holds 

 them concealed in its mouth until, pushing its bill into the 

 wide open mouths of the young, it regurgitates, or disgorges, 

 the food into their very throats, so that no human eye can 

 see it and no camera can record it. INIost small birds are fed 

 in this manner during the first few days of their lives, and 

 there is little chance to get results with the camera until the 

 young are well grown. Then some birds fly in and feed so 



