438 Bird - Lore 



been made for Forest Park, Long Island, for the Forest Hills Gardens, and 

 for the City Park Commission of Wilmington, Delaware. 



Assistance in propagating birds has been widely furnished. Such was given 

 to William Rockefeller in Quail-breeding, and to Senator McLean with Quails 

 and Ruffed Grouse, both with gratifying success. Inspection has been made for 

 W. A. Harriman of the Harriman estates and the State Park at Arden, New 

 York, and important measures for planting wild-duck food-plants and propa- 

 gating wild ducks for liberation are under way. On the large reservoir tract 

 of the Bridgeport (Conn.) Hydraulic Company, an expert in game-breeding 

 is now employed, and notable success has been achieved in raising Quails on a 

 considerable scale, without disease or appreciable loss. Many other estates and 

 preserves have been visited and assisted, such as those of the Okeetee Club, 

 South Carolina, the Jekyl Island Club, Georgia, the Woodmont Rod and Gun 

 Club, Maryland, the Childs-Walcott Preserve, Norfolk, Connecticut, the Con- 

 servation Commission, Louisiana, and others. 



Lecturing is constantly maintained, to interest the public in these prac- 

 tical methods, and also for general cultivation of interest in the conservation 

 of wild bird-life. For illustrative material, colored lantern-slides and motion- 

 picture films are used. All available time is given to calls for lectures, but many 

 requests have had to be decHned for lack of time. 



In order to secure abundant and attractive illustrative material, so impor- 

 tant at the present time for interesting the public, the Department has already, 

 in addition to a very large series of plate-pictures, produced seven reels, i,ooo 

 feet each, of motion-pictures of wild birds in action, covering the spectacular 

 life on great breeding-reservations, large concourses of wild ducks and geese 

 on the Louisiana refuges, game-bird and wild-fowl rearing, the attracting of 

 birds, and the home life of our common songsters. 



Investigations of various practical problems have been maintained, and new 

 data are constantly being gathered for future publication. In cooperation with 

 William Rockefeller and Edmund C. Converse, the Canvasback has been 

 bred in captivity for the first time. The breeding and rearing of Quails have 

 been reduced to a definite system, now followed by various state and other 

 game-farms. Further experimentation on the rearing and feeding of wild 

 ducks is now carried on by the Association in northern Manitoba, where a 

 large bunch of young Canvasbacks has been reared to maturity this season, 

 with almost no loss ; also young Golden-eyes — a difficult bird to handle. 



For a long time need has been felt by this Department of some place, under 

 control of the National Association, where it could carry on special research 

 in its own way, and thus have an experiment and demonstration station, 

 where bird-lovers could be shown by actual examples how to attract and 

 propagate wild birds. This hope is now becoming realized through a newly 

 found friend of birds, Charles M. Ams, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. In order 

 to own and control a beautiful lake, said to be nine miles around, he purchased 



