The Audubon Societies 



149 



giving that we are now to preserve in 

 sculptural art the miraculous incident we 

 all know so well; and I now have the 

 honor to unveil this beautiful monument 

 to the eye and admiration of grateful 

 thousands now living, and of untold 

 thousands yet to come." 



President Smith, of the Mormon 

 Church, said, among other things: 



"I am only relating what I saw. When- 

 ever the Gulls had been filled to capacity, 

 they would fly to the banks of the creek 

 and there disgorge the dead pests, which 

 lay along the stream in piles, many of 

 which were as large as my fist. These 

 piles literally covered the banks of the 

 creek. After the crickets had been so 

 nearly destroyed that ■ they began to 

 shelter themselves wherever they could 

 from the attacks of the Gulls, the birds 

 became so tame that they followed under 

 our wagons as we drove along, into our 

 yards, and under every shelter where 

 the crickets sought protection from them. 

 With the help of the Lord, we were able 

 to reap, that fall, a fairly good harvest." 



The monument is the work of Mahonri 

 M. Young, a grandson of the Mormon 

 pioneer, Brigham Young, and is said to 

 have cost $40,000. It consists of a granite 

 column more than fifteen feet high. 

 Upon the top of this there rests a great 

 ball, upon which two Gulls of gilded 

 bronze seem to be just alighting. The 

 square pedestal bears four historical 

 bronze plaques in high relief; and is sur- 

 rounded by a fountain forty feet in diame- 

 ter, in which water-lilies grow and gold- 

 fish swim, and where song-birds may 

 quench their thirst. 



Think for a moment of the difference 

 between the sentiment held by the Mor- 

 mons for the Gull and that entertained 

 by the Louisiana Legislature years ago, 

 when thejr passed a law taking all legal 

 protection away from this family of birds, 

 on the ground that they ate fish! What if 

 they do eat fish? Surely the good Creator 

 made enough fish for us and the birds too. 

 And fish is not all they eat, as any Utah 

 man will gratefully testify. It is a per- 

 fectly truthful statement that America 



holds no native bird which does not have 

 its part to play in the great economy of 

 nature; and the world would be the worse 

 were any one of them to disappear. 



Ernest IngersoU 



Mr. Ernest IngersoU, well known as a 

 writer on natural history, has become 

 connected for a time with the home-office 

 of the National Association in the capac- 

 ity of assistant to the Secretary. The office 

 has become a regular clearing-house for 

 questions and information relating to 

 natural history, and the correspondence 

 increasingly required in this direction has 

 already outgrown the limited time the 

 Secretary is able to devote to this subject. 

 Mr. IngersoU will assist him in this and 

 other phases of the work. It is hoped that 

 some of his time may also be devoted to 

 giving pubUc lectures in response to the 

 almost incessant calls for such service. 



Among the more popular of Mr. Inger- 

 soU's books relating to outdoor life are, 

 "Wild Neighbors," "Wild Life of Orchard 

 and Field," "Nature's Calendar," "The 

 Wit of the Wild," and "Animal Competi- 

 tors," the last named, an account of North 

 American mammals in their economic 

 relations to agriculture and fur-growing. 

 In his "Life of Mammals," the public 

 has a standard work on the four-footed 

 animals of the world. Mr. IngersoU had 

 charge of the zoological department in 

 both the New International and Nel- 

 son's encyclopedias; was for several years 

 on the editorial staff of the Standard 

 Dictionary; and is now editor of the 

 Farmers' Practical Library. His writings 

 have also appeared in many of the popu- 

 lar magazines published in this country. 



Enforcing the New Federal Law 



The following is from a news-letter 

 recently given out by the United States 

 Biological Survey, bearing the signature 

 of T. S. Palmer, Assistant Chief. 



"During the past four months, work 

 under the migratory-bird law has been 

 pushed as rapidly as the limited means at 



