DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL SUKVEY. 153 



cial attention has been paid to the food of orioles, woodpeckers, fly- 

 catchers, and swallows, with a view to supplementing former reports 

 in the case of the first two groups and preparing preliminary reports 

 in the case of the last two. 



More than 25 per cent of the stomachs were examined in connection 

 with the preparation of a report embodying the recent field investiga- 

 tions conducted by Dr. S. D. Judd, which will shortly appear. 



Numerous complaints have been received during the past few years 

 concerning the damage done to fruit on the Pacific coast by the house 

 finch {Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis), blue jay (Aphelocoma cali- 

 fomica), western robin (Merula migratoria propinqua), and other 

 birds. In May of the present year Prof. F. E. L. Beal was dispatched 

 to California to visit the principal fruit-growing sections of the State 

 aud to make a personal investigation of the depredations in the 

 orchards. Professor Beal first made his headquarters at Hay wards, 

 Alameda County, studying the conditions in the various fruit-growing 

 sections about San Francisco Bay, observing the birds at the time 

 when the fruit was ripening, and collecting material for study in the 

 laboratory. He also visited southern California and the orchards and 

 vineyards in the vicinity of Fresno in the upper San Joaquin Valley. 

 The data obtained through these investigations will throw much light 

 on the economic status of the birds studied in California, but the 

 amount of material thus far received indicates that several months 

 will be required for its examination and the preparation of the results 

 for publication. 



THE LACEY ACT. 



In carrying out the provisions of the Lacey Act the Department has 

 been brought into close relations with several of the other Executive 

 Departments, with State officials, and with game-protective associa- 

 tions throughout the country. Four of the Executive Departments 

 are now cooperating in the enforcement of this law — the Treasury 

 Department in carrying out regulations for the importation of foreign 

 birds and animals, the Department of the Interior in preventing ille- 

 gal shipments of game from the Indian Territory, the Department of 

 Justice in prosecuting violations of the Federal statute, and the 

 Department of Agriculture in assisting in the enforcement of the law, 

 issuing permits for the enuiy of foreign birds, and collecting and dis- 

 seminating information concerning birds and game. 



In the absence of an adequate appropriation, which would admit of 

 carrying out all the provisions of the law, the Department has devoted 

 its attention largely to the educational side of the work as the one 

 likely to yield the best results in proportion to limited expenditures. 

 In pursuance of this policy information concerning game laws has 

 been collected and published in the form of popular bulletins, and aid 

 has been freely rendered to all efforts to arouse public interest in the 

 protection of birds and game. In the publications the more important 

 details of the various State laws have been arranged in a form con- 

 venient for comparison, and a comprehensive definition of game, a uni- 

 form plan of stating close seasons, and a regular sequence of treating 

 of the various kinds of game have all been adopted. These details 

 tend to simplify many of the complexities of game legislation. The 

 demand for the published bulletins and for special information on 

 game protection has been unexpectedly large and is increasing to such 

 a degree that it is becoming more and more difficult to meet all requests. 

 The interest in bird protection aroused through the passage of the 



