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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ZOOLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY BULLETIN 



EDITED BY THE DIRECTOR 



Elwln R. Sanborn, Asst. Editor. 



Published at the Office of the Society, n Wall St., Ne'.u York City. 



Copyright, IQOJ, by the New York Zoological Society. 



No. i8. JULY, 1905. 



Subscription price, 50 cents for tour numbers. 



Single numbers, I 5 cents. 



MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS. 



©fficcrs of tbr Siotictp. 

 prcsibciu : 



HUN. Lli\I 1'. MURTOX. 



4HFetutitiE Committee : 



Charles T. Baknev, Chairman, 

 Henrv Fairfield Osborn, Madison Grant, 



John S. Barnes, William White Niles, 



Philip Schuyler, Samuel Thorne, 



Levi P. Morton, e.r-officio. 



©cncral <|tfficct? : 



Secretary, Madison Grant, 11 Wall Street. 



Treasurer, Percy R. Pvne, 52 Wall Street. 



Director, William T. Hornaday, Zoological Park. 



Director of the .Aquariuin, Charles H. Townsend, Battery Park. 



IBoarb of .{laanagecg : 



EX-OFFICIO. 

 The Mayor of tlu- City of Nexu York, Hon. George B. McClellan. 

 The Fresideut of the Deft of Porks. Hon. John J. Pallas. 



PROTECTION TO WILD LIFE. 



Ever since its incorporation the Society has 

 actively engaged in game-protection work, and 

 with the policy in view of making a more vigorous 

 future campaign, has appointed Mr. G. O. Shields, 

 formerly editor of Recreation Magazine, as its 

 special agent for game protection. 



During the past two years very important work 

 for bird protection has been accomplished, through 

 the income of an endowment fund given by Miss 

 Caroline Phelps Stokes to the Zoological Society, 

 for use only in the cause of bird protection. 



The first e.xpenditure from this fund was utilized 

 in printing a special edition of 3,000 copies of the 

 Director's "Report on the Destruction of Our 

 Birds and Mammals," a pamphlet which has been 

 in great demand by teachers and by persons seek- 

 ing to secure the enactment of better laws for game 

 protection. Two thousand copies of this reprint 

 were distributed throughout the United States, 

 generally, and, at the request of a member of 



Congress, copies were sent to all members of the 

 Senate and House of Representatives. 



During the recent struggle in Te.xas for the en- 

 actment of better laws for bird protection, copies 

 were sent to all members of the State Legislature, 

 and the resulting victory by the bird-protectionists 

 was partly accredited to this literature. 



In 1Q04 Mr. Shields was sent to New Orleans 

 for the purpose of rendering active assistance in 

 securing the passage by the Legislature of better 

 laws for the protection of birds. Mr. Shields ap- 

 peared before the State Legislature, and addressed 

 both of its bodies, as well as the Committees having 

 in charge the bill in behalf of the birds, and made 

 other addresses in various places in Louisiana. 



Altogether, the result of the campaign was most 

 gratifying, and the work which Mr. Shields accom- 

 plished has proven of permanent value. The State 

 of Louisiana has long lacked proper bird laws, and 

 the result has been that an immense number of 

 song birds, not to mention water-fowl, have annually 

 been slaughtered. The Society defrayed the entire 

 expense of this trip from the Stokes Fund. 



Early in 1904, the attention of the Zoological 

 Society wa«-called to the fact that certain manu- 

 facturers were about to put upon the market an 

 automatic double-barrel shot-gun, of great destruc- 

 tive power, when brought to bear against birds. The 

 idea of a machine-gun for the slaughter of birds 

 caused the Zoological Society great concern, and 

 when Mr. Shields appealed to the Society for funds 

 with which to print 10,000 copies of a pamphlet 

 protesting against the automatic gun, for special dis- 

 tribution among the members of State Legislatures, 

 the Society appropriated $100 for that purpose. The 

 pamphlet was printed to a total number of 10,000, 

 and a copy was sent to each member of every State 

 Legislature in the Union. This recjuired about six 

 thousand copies, and to supply the number of extra 

 copies that were called for by State Legislators, 

 about one thousand additional copies were sent out. 



Mr. Shields had planned to make a vigorous 

 personal campaign in several states against the 

 automatic gun while law-making bodies were in 

 session, but very unfortunately, the amount of 

 money that he had personally expended in game 

 protection led to his being thrown into bankruptcy 

 in January, 1905, and the loss of his game-protec- 

 tion magazine. In order that he may continue 

 this work, the Executive Committee has made the 

 appointment mentioned above, and its members 

 have individually subscribed a substantial sum 

 toward the financing of Shield's Magazine, which, 

 of course, will be largely devoted to the cause of 

 game protection. e. r. s. 



