OA. Rep07't of Co7nmittee on Bird Proicctioft. iTa 



tion for certain birds not now protected. So many amendments 

 were proposed, however, that it was thought, if passed, it would 

 be worse than the present law, and it was dropped. 



" The game wardens of New Jersey, under the direction of Mr. 

 Charles A. Shriner, have done excellent work and have made so 

 many arrests that very little illegal gunning is done, and many 

 birds which are not really protected by the law are unmolested 

 from fear that arrest may follow if they are harmed. 



" The Gulls and Terns remain in about the same numbers as 

 last year, but the Clapper Rails show clearly the effects of the 

 enormous slaughter of September, 1896, and the high tides at the 

 nesting season last summer, and have been very scarce." 



Michigan. 



I 



Mr. L. Whitney Watkins reports as follows : " I am pleased 

 to state that a general feeling of enthusiasm prevails among the 

 ornithologists of Michigan in the observance and enforcement 

 of the laws protecting our native birds from wanton slaughter, 

 and women wear birds upon their hats less than formerly ; but 

 here as elsewhere they are the last to think that the poor birds 

 suffer on account of their own selfish vanity. The Michigan 

 Academy of Sciences has appointed Prof. Walter B. Barrows of 

 Lansing, Prof. Dean C. Worcester of Ann Arbor, and L. 

 Whitney Watkins of Manchester, a Committee to advise and 

 formulate better means for the protection of our song and insec- 

 tivorous birds. 



"The Michigan Ornithological Club, through its official quar- 

 terly bulletin, to which I have the honor of serving as editor-in- 

 chief, has fearlessly and persistently stood for the protection, of 

 birds, and at the next annual meeting of our club we shall, I 

 trust, start a branch of the Audubon Society, regarding which 

 you have already heard from me. 



" State Game and Fish Warden, Chas. S. Osborne of Sault Ste. 

 Marie, who, like myself, is a member of both the above-mentioned 

 societies, as well as of the American Ornithologists' Union, has 

 done great good for the cause in the enforcement of the statute 

 respecting our song and insectivorous birds, and in the great 



