112 A REMARKABLE BLUE-BOOK 



lions of these birds are killed in Holland, where their 

 sale is prohibited at certain seasons, and these find a 

 ready market in this country. It is not unreasonable 

 to ask that Parliament should decree this traffic to be 

 contraband. 



XXVIII 



Parliamentary Blue-books seldom afford succulent 

 reading do men gather grapes of thorns ? 

 able Blue- still less does one turn to them for examples 

 of high-class illustration. All the more agree- 

 able, therefore, is the surprise imparted by a Blue-book 

 (or whatever may be the American equivalent to a 

 Blue-book) lately published by the Legislature of the 

 State of New York, containing the first annual report 

 of the Commissioners of Fisheries, Game, and Forests. 

 This Commission, having been appointed as a per- 

 manent body by an act of 1895, which superseded 

 the old Forest Commission, explains in the preface 

 that its object has been to make its first report some- 

 thing more than commonplace something beyond a 

 dry recital of statistics and an account of work 

 accomplished in order ' to interest, and, in a degree, 

 instruct, the great mass of the people of the State in 

 regard to the fisheries, game, and forests.' The Com- 

 missioners are to be congratulated on the result of 

 this attempt. They have produced a volume which 

 is almost as interesting to naturalists and sportsmen 

 in the old world as to those of the new. This is 



