86 Bird -Lore 



local public schools, as well as at the summer playground work. Prof. W. 

 M. Jackson, of Campbellsville, writes: ''I know the National Committee 

 has other matters than state affairs to see to, and that this work ought to be 

 done by the state; but, if the state won't do it, and the National organiza- 

 tion can take the lead and start the work, then probably the state will take 

 up the responsibility. Of course the trouble with the National, as with the 

 state organizations, is that it takes money to do these things. For a Na- 

 tional Emblem, our society suggests a Cardinal, — or, as we in Kentucky say, 

 a Kentucky Cardinal." 



Louisiana. — The results of the Audubon work in this state are simply 

 marvelous, and show forcibly what the efforts of a few active spirits can 

 accomplish, led by a man who, besides being a splendid organizer, is a pleasing 

 and persuasive speaker and an untiring worker. With such a combination 

 an Audubon Society cannot help succeed. Two years since (see report for 

 1902) Audubon work was unknown in Louisiana, the bird laws were worse 

 than none, for they permitted trapping and shipping live birds from the state. 

 A little less than two years' arduous labor directed toward the education of 

 the public to the needs of bird protection, aided by the boll-weevil scare, has 

 completely changed the condition of bird and game affairs, and now the 

 citizens of Louisiana can congratulate themselves on having the most perfect 

 non-game bird law in the country. It became effective August 9, 1904, 

 and at the same time a new and very excellent game law became operative. 

 These laws prevent the trapping, caging and exporting of all birds; conse- 

 quently the traffic in Cardinals, Mockingbirds, Nonpareils and Indigo Birds 

 is prevented, not only in Louisiana, but also in all parts of the country, since, 

 as soon as the citizens of Louisiana made the trade illegal in their own state, 

 the Federal Law, known as the Lacey Act, made it illegal to trade in Lou- 

 isiana birds in other portions of the country. As Louisiana heretofore sup- 

 plied all of the above trade, the influence of her new law reaches far beyond 

 the borders of her own state. In August last the president of the society, 

 Mr. Frank M. Miller, made a cruise among the islands in the Gulf of 

 Mexico to the eastward of the state coast line; he found the eggs of the 

 Royal and Least Terns, Laughing Gulls and Black Skimmers being used 

 by glue manufacturers, — assuredly one of the most flagrant and vicious 

 forms of bird destruction. It was impossible to determine exactly the ex- 

 tent that this nefarious trafllic was carried on; but, making due allowance 

 for the exaggerations of fishermen and others who gave the evidence, 

 it is possible that a conservative estimate would be 50,000 eggs destroyed, 

 and probably the number was far greater. One well-authenticated case 

 was that 600 dozen eggs of the Royal Tern were taken in one day by a 

 single vessel from Old Harbor Island. It was ascertained that there were 

 about thirty-five islands which were occupied as breeding-grounds. Some 



