The Audubon Societies 



151 



and confined in a county jail for at least 

 thirty days. A recent case of vandalism 

 has been called to the attention of this 

 Association: A salesman in one of the 

 western states was traveling in a buck- 

 board and, to amuse himself, he carried 

 a 32-caliber rifle with him, with which 

 he shot Nighthawks from the fences at 

 the roadside. One evening he boasted 

 that in a twenty-mile drive that day he 

 had killed thirty-four Bull-bats, not one 

 of which had he taken the trouble to pick 

 up, but allowed them to lie where they 

 had fallen. If each of the Nighthawks 

 had eaten at one meal 300 mosquitoes, 

 they would have destroyed 10,200 of these 

 vicious insects, and the least punishment 

 that could be wished for such a vandal is 

 that the whole number of mosquitoes 

 could prey upon him at one time. 



The Destruction of Plume-Birds* 



It is probable that a bill will shortly 

 be introduced into Parliament with the 

 object of preventing the destruction of 

 wild birds for their plumage. A confer- 

 ence on the subject, called by Lord Ave- 

 bury, was held on March 13, when repre- 

 sentatives were present from the British 

 Museum (Natural History Department), 

 Royal Society, Linnaean Society, Zoologi- 

 cal Society, Selborne Society, and the 

 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 

 The general provisions of the proposed 

 bill were practically agreed upon. 



The Destruction of Lapwings 



The National Association of Audubon 

 Societies urgently calls the attention of the 

 officers of the Royal Society for the Pro- 

 tection of Birds to the imperative necessity 

 for some action to be taken to stop the 

 killing of large numbers of Lapwings in 

 England and their export to the United 

 States to be served in the hotels and res- 

 taurants of the large cities. Recently, 18,000 

 Lapwings were found in one cold-storage 

 house in Jersey City, N. J.; such an 



♦From 'Bird Notes and News ' organ of the 

 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Lon- 

 don, England. Spring number, 1908. 



abnormal drain on a single species of 

 birds cannot be maintained for any great 

 length of time without the extinction of the 

 species. 



What is needed as much as anything 

 at the present time is an International 

 Bird Protective Association, in order to 

 present to the proper authorities of all the 

 leading countries of the world the necessity 

 for the suppression of the inter-country 

 traffic in the wild birds of each country. 



AN INTERESTING AND VALUABLE 

 COMPETITION 



The President of the National Associa- 

 tion feels that he is barred from entering 

 into the competition proposed below by 

 The Royal Society for the Protection of 

 Birds from the fact that he spends a goodly 

 portion of his time in procuring legislation 

 for the protection of birds, and his know- 

 ledge of the subject would be a serious 

 handicap to other competitors. He, how- 

 ever, hopes that some of the bright young 

 Americans who are known to be interested 

 in the legal aspect of bird protection will 

 enter the competition and will succeed in 

 bringing to America the gold medal of the 

 Royal Society. 



Regulations for International Competi- 

 tion, 1908 



The Gold Medal of The Royal Society 

 for the Protection of Birds (Great Britain) 

 and Twenty Guineas are offered for the 

 best Essay or Treatise on "Comparative 

 Legislation for the Protection of Birds." 

 The essay should take the form of an 

 epitome of the legislation in force in the 

 various countries of Europe (Great 

 Britain excepted), together with a com- 

 parison of such legislation with: (a) The 

 law and regulations in force in Great 

 Britain.* (b) The proposals of the Inter- 

 national Convention for the Protection 

 of Birds Useful to Agriculture, signed at 



*Acts of 1880 (43 & 44 Vict., c. 35), 1881 (44 

 & 45 Vict., c. 51), 1894 (57 & 58 Vict., c. 24), 

 1896, (59 & 60 Vict., c. 56), 1902 (2 Edw. VII., 

 c. 6), 1904 (4 Edw. VII., c. 4), 1904 (4 Edw. 

 VII., c. 10), copies of which may be obtained 

 fiom the Society, 3, Hanover Square, London. 



