The Audubon Societies 



"5 



In order to more properly regulate 

 trafi&c and also to produce an income to the 

 Government from a source wholly untaxed 

 and perfectly capable of sustaining a tax, 

 the National Association of Audubon 

 Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds 

 and Animals recommends the following 

 change in Paragraph 416, so as to read: 



"Live wild birds, including land and 

 water fowl, but not including game birds, 

 domesticated food fowl or birds imported 

 by public Zoological Gardens, $1 each." 

 (Or 50 cents plus 20 cents advalorem.) 



By way of illustration, a Canary 

 appraised at $2 would pay $1 duty under 

 the flat dollar rate or 90 cents under the 

 graduated rate. The same bird would 

 retail at $5 or more at present prices. A 

 five dollar parrot would pay $1 under the 

 flat rate or $1.50 under the graduated rate 

 and would retail at from $10 to $25. It is 

 believed that this rate of duty would pro- 

 duce a revenue of anywhere from $200,000 



to $300,000 annually from a source which 

 heretofore has yielded no revenue. This is 

 more than Congress at the present time 

 appropriates to the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment for the enforcement of the Migratory 

 Bird Treaty Act. 



The charge of the flat dollar rate is to 

 effect the low appraised value of birds in 

 the Orient and from some European 

 countries where currency at present is 

 greatly depleted. Naturally it will be 

 prohibitive in cases of birds less than a 

 dollar in value, but the losses on the traffic 

 will probably not be serious. A bird that is 

 not worth a dollar is given little attention 

 by dealers and the losses on these miscel- 

 laneous birds, from the time the birds were 

 captured until they reach the retail store 

 are numerous, and would probably reach 

 75 per cent in the first few months. 

 Comparatively few of these birds thrive 

 in captivity, and many thousands have 

 lost their lives through experiments. 



STATE LEGISLATIVE MATTERS 



This year the legislatures in forty-one 

 of the states assembled. As usual this 

 means much legislation that affects the 

 wild bird life, and Audubon workers have 

 much to do and to think about. Among 

 the propositions that are up for considera- 

 tion was a bill drafted by the Audubon 

 Society of the State of North Carolina 

 intended to establish a State Game Com- 

 mission. Such efforts have been made 

 by the Audubon Society for ten years 

 past, but all attempts have failed for the 

 reason that in North Carolina it has been 

 an almost iron-clad, though unwritten 

 law, that any representative in the legis- 

 lature can ask for any kind of a game 

 law or change in the existing game laws 

 for his county that he desires, and through 

 courtesy the legislature always lets him 

 have it. The result has been that there has 

 grown up a hodgepodge of game laws in 

 that state which is marvelous and wonder- 

 ful to behold. People often ask this office 

 when the season for shooting Quail in 

 North Carolina is. There is no way to 

 answer this except to tell them to buy 



copies of all the laws that have been en- 

 acted in the past ten years in North 

 Carolina, go through these books and hunt 

 out the latest law for the particular county 

 in which they are interested. At the 

 present time there is a county measure 

 pending in the North Carolina Legislature 

 that is being fought strongly, but this is 

 because there is a division among the 

 people themselves as to what they want. 

 Such a situation is almost unheard of in 

 that state, for as a rule people there take 

 little interest in the game laws, one way or 

 another. 



If the Audubon Society can succeed in 

 establishing a Game Commission with 

 state-wide authority, it will undoubtedly 

 be the most notable piece of state bird and 

 game protective legislation that will be 

 enacted in the year 1921. Just as this is 

 going to press we learn that the Game 

 Commission bill was defeated in the 

 Senate. 



In Florida a bill has been prepared for 

 introduction in the Legislature by the 

 Florida Wild Life Protective League, a 



