Reports of Field Agents 489 



REPORTS OF FIELD AGENTS 



REPORT OF ARTHUR H. NORTON, FIELD AGENT 

 FOR MAINE 



The demand for lectures on birds, particularly illustrated ones, by granges, 

 schools, clubs, and other organizations has been extensive, and has been met, 

 so far as possible, by the National Field Agent for the state, and by local 

 .Audubon secretaries. To facilitate illustration, numerous lantern-slides have 

 been made, chiefly from local photographs of birds and their haimts, and addi- 

 tional negatives are in process of collection. 



A small selection of skins of birds from the agent's private collection is 

 loaned to local clubs, with the request that, whenever exhibited, a plea be 

 made that members of the audience feed the birds in winter. Suggestions as 

 to methods are furnished, and instructions given for planting fruit-bearing 

 trees and shrubs, with a view to attracting birds and providing them with 

 food. Reports from several private estates show that means for attracting 

 birds, both in summer and winter, have met with most gratifying results. 



Early in the season, a circular on feeding birds in winter was prepared, and 

 later, upon telegraphic instructions from National Secretary T. Gilbert Pear- 

 son an abstract was distributed to every newspaper in the state, with a letter 

 requesting its publication. The response was most gratifying. The press in 

 Maine, indeed, has given hearty support to every attempt to give better 

 protection to our birds. 



The alarming increase and spread, in Maine, during recent years, of two 

 imported insect-pests, the gypsy and brown-tailed moths, have resulted in 

 the cutting of much oak and wild cherry along highways and hedge-rows, thus 

 removing a source of food for many birds. This, of itself, is not serious in so 

 well- wooded a state; but the alarm has resulted in cleaner orcharding, which 

 has been carried out so vigorously that birds in the habit of nesting in cavities 

 have been deprived of summer homes in many instances. It is to be regretted 

 that many "progressive farmers" are so imbued with the so-called "Yankee 

 spirit of thrift" that, in their efforts to make their properties yield an immediate 

 income, they have failed to think of, or have lost sight of, or never have heard 

 of, the great factor of the bird-popuJation of the farm. Every tree and shrub 

 whose use is not visible at the moment goes to the furnace, the naked barbed- 

 wire fence takes the place of the old hedge-row, and a host of birds are deprived 

 of cover, food, and attractive nesting-places. 



The past year witnessed the growth of an effort to set aside a large part of 

 the island of Mt. Desert as a natural preserve for native wild animals and 

 plants. Citizens of the town of Scarborough petitioned the State Commis- 

 sioners of Island Fisheries and Game to set apart Prout's Neck, comprising 

 an area of 112 acres, in which shooting and hunting shall be prohibited. After 



