The Audubon Societies 



187 



turbed they will soon have four of the 

 sweetest little yellow-gray puff balls that 

 you ever saw. 



"A good many young Gulls are flying 

 and we think by next month they all will 

 be through nesting. 



"The Little Blue Herons are just about 

 beginning to hatch now; we have found 

 eggs as late as July. The mangroves 

 around the big pond must have become 

 a little too crowded for the Louisiana 

 Herons, for nearly half of them nested 

 around the little pond, where the highest 

 mangrove is hardly twelve feet. I wonder 

 how the Red-wings and Grackles liked 

 their new neighbors? 



"Isn't it fine the way Great Blue and 

 Ward's Herons have taken to Passage 

 Key? The first year, 1906, there were 

 only about six, and we don't know whether 

 they nested or not; last year there were, 

 after they had all hatched, about 130; this 

 year nearly 400 on the Key. Of course, 

 they may not all have nested but most of 

 them did; I counted 78 nests. You under- 

 stand that all the young raised are in- 

 cluded in that 400. 



"Passage Key is certainly beautiful 

 now, but there's never a time when it is 

 not, and there is one thing that we all wish 

 all the time, and that is, for you to see it. 



"We put up the new reservation 

 notices on Passage Key, but have not got- 

 ten over to Indian Key yet; we think we 

 may get there the last of next week. 

 'United States Bird Reservation' seems 

 to make a great impression on everybody 

 that reads it." 



Torttjgas, Florida. — Prof. Alfred G. 

 Mayer, who takes a deep interest in this 

 reservation, writes as follows from the 

 Marine Laboratory of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution, on June 21. 



"I am now happy to say that we have 

 decidedly 'the upper hand' in the rat 

 problem. The combination of azoa, 

 strychnine, barium carbonate, cyanide of 

 potassium and guillotine traps have ren- 

 dered them rare both on Bird Key and 

 on Loggerhead, so that the nesting Terns 

 are now not appreciably interfered with. 



"The actual number of rats on Bird 

 Key appears not to have been more than 

 100-200. You know they breed every 

 two months and often have ten young at 

 a time. 



"The Least Terns are having an un- 

 usual immunity on Loggerhead Key this- 

 season, and I have effectually checked 

 the shooting and egg-eating propensities 

 formerly indulged in by the lighthouse 

 keepers. 



"The Least Tern colony on Bush Key 

 is larger than ever; there may be 1,000 

 birds there. 



"Since I abolished shooting here the 

 Herons and other transient visitors have 

 become so tame that one may with care 

 approach within ten feet of them; we have 

 several on the island now. 



"The lighthouse keeper desired to con- 

 tinue the shooting of Sharp-shinned 

 Hawks, but I told him that all birds were 

 protected. Undoubtedly every stray shot 

 would have been at a 'Sharp-shinned' 

 Hawk.' 



"Your man on Bird Key is an ardent 

 rat-trapper and is doing well as a warden."' 



Battledore Island, La. — Through 

 the courtesy of the National Association 

 and of Mr. Frank M. Miller, President 

 of the Louisiana Audubon Society, I was. 

 enabled to spend the first eleven days of 

 June, 1908, on the Association patrol 

 boat, 'Royal Tern,' on a cruise over the 

 entire Breton Island Reservation, off the 

 coast of Louisiana, and among all the 

 islands owned or controlled by the Louisi- 

 ana Audubon Society. In this brief 

 general statement preliminary to a full 

 report I have space only for some general 

 remarks. 



My main impression is of a vast area 

 of shallow waters, low-lying islands of salt 

 marsh, and outer sand-keys far to seaward^ 

 in all, hundreds of square miles, most of it 

 teeming, sometimes swarming, with bird- 

 life. I was too late to see the immense 

 squadrons of wintering or migratory wild- 

 fowl, which, after enjoying this peaceful 

 haven of refuge where guns are outlawed, 

 had departed for the far north. All but 



