Vol. XIV 
Ror Report of Committee on Bird Protection. PH 
threatening the extermination of the Petrels, and the market trade 
the extermination of the Murres and Gulls. 
“«T write now seeking the aid of the A. O. U. in putting an 
end to this nefarious traffic. Two steps are needful: 
“yz, A California law must be secured prohibiting the sale 
of wild birds’ eggs. ‘This will stop the shipping of eggs to the 
markets. 
“2. An order must be obtained from the U.S. Lighthouse 
Board instructing the Farallon keepers to stop gathering eggs, 
and to keep off possible poachers that might want eggs for their 
own consumption. 
“ A committee from the California Academy of Sciences can 
attend to the California law. I shall present the matter in a 
lecture I am to deliver on the Farallons, October 19, before the 
Academy. 
“ Tt remains for the A. O. U. to secure the action of the Light- 
house Board. ‘ 
‘“« All this can be accomplished this fall, and another season the 
birds will be allowed to breed, and the rookeries will be preserved. 
Kindly send me copies of the New York and Massachusetts laws 
relating to bird protection, especially of sea birds.” 
(A popular article, confirming Mr. Loomis’s statement regard- 
ing the wanton destruction of eggs on the Farallons, appeared in 
‘Leslie’s Popular Monthly,’ New York, November, 1896, pp. 
589-597 — ten illustrations. ) 
In response to Mr. Loomis’s appeal for aid, your Chairman at 
once wrote to the Lighthouse Board as follows : — 
New York, Oct. 3, 1896. 
THe Hon. SECRETARY LIGHTHOUSE BOARD, 
Washington, D. C. 
DEAR SIR :— 
As Chairman of the American Ornithologists’ Union Committee 
on the protection of North American Birds, I deem it my duty to call 
to your attention an abuse that you have power to abate, z. e., the destruc- 
tion of the eggs of certain sea birds that breed on South Farallon Island. 
I send you herewith a copy of a letter received from Prof. Loomis, of 
the California Academy of Sciences, together with a copy of a paper 
written by him on California birds in which, on pp. 356-358, he calls 
attention to the abuse. 
