;Wi 



184 



NINTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



not. She would sit on the fence post, 

 and I could see the bees going- not 

 more than six steps from her, and 

 the minute a bee lit on the blossom 

 she would swoop down and get it. 



iMr. Snyder — ^I don't think they are 

 in the habit of using the blossom, as 

 they call it, as a decoy. I watched 

 one o fthose bee-martens a good deal 

 this summer that was in the habit 

 of coming into an apple tree in the 

 apiary, and she would sit on a little 

 dry limb and make a dive for a 'b«e 

 and get it, and then a dozen other 

 bees would chase her out of the yard. 

 I think the bees recognize them as an 

 enemy. 



Mr. Gerald — Some years ago I think 

 Prof. Cook, of California, gave a de- 

 scription of those birds, and he says 

 they are both fcee-martens ; the light 

 colored bird has the same red spot 

 in its forehead that the gray one 

 has, "We have both of them, and I 

 have shot both kinds, and I shoot 

 them because I know they are taking 

 the tees. 



Mr. Lommedieu — This summer there 

 was' a brown mocking bird got a 

 notirn to catch bees to feed her young 

 birds, and she caught a good many 

 bees from one hive in particular. I 

 noticed her come and go to that one 

 hive more particularly but still I have 

 seen her catch bees from other hives 

 and kill them. She would go back 

 about a foot from the front of the 

 hive and all at once make a dive 

 for a bee on the bottom board of the 

 hive, and then fly off and give it to 

 the young birds. 



Mr. France — This question was sent 

 from a long distance to have it dis- 

 cussed on the ijoint of the legality. 

 The man mentioned in it is under 

 aixest. One of our platforms i.i the 

 defense of our members, and he being 

 a me^mber of our National, I replied 

 to him in this way, that I had found 

 no law dn any State, so far as I could 

 gather them, but what he had a legal 

 riglM to "the protection of his prop- 

 erty. If the State law includes the 

 pee-wee a)mjong the birds protected by 

 law, under the ordinary interpretation 

 of the law (he would not have a legal 

 right; but where he was protecting 

 property that could not be protected 

 otherwise he would have a right to 

 protect it on tihe same basis that a 

 man has a right, if he cannot protect 

 his own 'property without the use of 



the gun, to drive a robber away from 

 his own property wdthi it. As a test, 

 which may be somewhat of a parallel,, 

 a few years ago w^hen the timber was 

 in abundance about my place, adjoin- 

 ing it I had several acr^ of black- 

 berries. The ibirds would gather in 

 there and in a short time take suffi- 

 cient of tihe early morning berries as^ 

 to amount to cases of the berries 

 mutilated and 'destroyed. I resorted 

 first to using the shotgun with blank 

 shells and scaring them away, but It 

 was not sufficiently effective, and 

 finally I resorted to killing some of the 

 birds. Our officer 'from the city came 

 out and said, "I understand you shot 

 some robins' yesterday." "Yes, sir." 

 "You know the la'W says differently; 

 you are not allowed to kill robins?"- 

 "Yes, sir." "Don't you know you are 

 subject to arrest for killing birds?" 

 While he was talking, some more birds 

 lit upon a bush and were destroying 

 the next morning's pickings. I said, 

 "Mister, would yooi sitand here and see 

 a thief, right in your own view, takingf- 

 tomorrow's berries, and you have no 

 protection?" An4 I up with the gun 

 and killed the birds, and I said, "Take 

 those as evidence of your own per- 

 sonal view of imiy killing them, and 

 take <me under arrest." "Yes," he says, 

 "I will." He went to our City Attor- 

 ney and he promised to come back. 

 He did, and he said, "It wasn't wan- 

 ton destruction?" I said, "No, sir; I 

 was saving property." He said, "Say,, 

 the next lot of young birds you shoot, 

 save them; they .make a splendid pot 

 pie." 



If you are 'doing it as a means of 

 destruction, taking the lives of the 

 birds without an object, then the law 

 does protect our birds. Birds do a 

 vast amount of good for us that we 

 do not give them credit fjr, even in 

 the orchards, by the way in wihch 

 they save the trees by taking the in- 

 secf life, and, anid for that reason, they 

 ought to he cared for. But there- 

 are cases such as this man under ar- 

 rest. However, he has been dis- 

 missed. 



Mr. Lax — Being an admirer of bees- 

 myself, I love to see them work, and 

 I always observe themi very closely. 

 There has already been a good deal 

 said, and it has made an impression 

 on my mind. I want to say this: That 

 I 'believe the thee has got the pre- 

 eminence over the bird, because the 



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