The Audubon Societies 



57 



number of which he estimated to be in excess 

 of one thousand. This boat makes an aver- 

 age of one trip a week from the time the 

 Ducks first arrive until the day the last one 

 leaves for the North in the spring. Market 

 shooting is illegal in Texas, but is carried 

 on because the game dealers of St. Louis, 

 Chicago, New York and other places get 

 from the high-priced restaurants and hotels 

 big prices for these birds. Every year the 

 price of game increases, because the number 

 of birds decrease. When the sportsmen of 

 the country wake up to the fact that the next 

 generation will not have any game-birds, 

 they will probably be willing to join with 

 the nature-lovers to stop the sale of all game 

 and also to stop the killing of any game- 

 birds after the first day of January. 



This Association will have two active, 

 intelligent, earnest workers represent it at 

 the capital of Texas to prevent, if possible, 

 the repeal of the present law, which neces- 

 sarily compels the market-hunter to work 

 secretly and gives them a great deal of what 

 they consider, unnecessary trouble in ship- 

 ping their illegal goods. We also hope to 

 establish a game commission in Texas in 

 •order that the law may be enforced, and to 

 have every man who uses a gun secure a 

 hunter's license. 



Vermont. — Eternal vigilance is the price 

 ■of safety for birds, and it is not prudent for 

 the Audubon Societies to relax their watch- 

 fulness for a moment during the legislative 

 season. In Vermont, a single fruit-grower 

 thought he had cause for complaint against 

 the Cedar Waxwing for eating his cherries. 

 Without any thought of the results of his 

 action, he sought relief for his fancied loss 

 by an attempt to have protection removed by 

 legislation from all the Waxwings in the 

 state. By concerted action on the part of 

 the Vermont Audubon Society and the good 

 sense of the majority of the members of the 

 legislature, the bill was defeated. It came 

 up a second time in a modified form, i. e., 

 that a fruit-grower might claim damages 

 "from the state on presenting proof that he 

 had been damaged by Waxwings. It was 

 not a difficult matter to show the members 

 •of the legislature that it would be practi- 



cally impossible for any fruit-grower to 

 furnish reliable evidence of damage. The 

 mere fact that Waxwings were seen in a 

 fruit tree would not be evidence that could 

 be accepted by the state officials. The only 

 evidence worthy of credence would be an 

 examination of the stomach contents of the 

 bird made by an expert. Such evidence it 

 would be impossible for the complainant to 

 furnish. The second bill was also defeated. 

 In this connection the testimony of Mr. 

 William Brewster, of Cambridge, Massa- 

 chusetts, regarding the food habits of the 

 Waxwings, is of great value and interest. 

 There is no ornithologist in this country 

 whose statements regarding the habits of 

 birds have greater weight than those of Mr. 

 Brewster, as he never gives an opinion unless 

 it has been carefully weighed and is the 

 result of long personal and exceedingly 

 careful observation. In a recent letter to the 

 National Association, he gives his views re- 

 garding the food of the Waxwings, as fol- 

 lows : 



" I am convinced, by an experience of 

 more than forty years, that the harm done in 

 the East to small-fruit crops by Robins, 

 Cat- birds and Cedar-birds has been greatly 

 exaggerated. Where those fruits are grown 

 in any quantity, the loss caused by the birds 

 just mentioned is very trifling. My father 

 used to maintain that the best way to deal 

 with the birds was to furnish enough extra 

 fruit to supply their wants and to allow them 

 to eat it undisturbed. I have long acted 

 on this principle and with perfectly satis- 

 factory results. In my garden in Cam- 

 bridge, six cherry trees have furnished us 

 with more fruit each season than our family 

 and friends have been able to use, both fresh 

 and for preserving. Yet the swarms of 

 Robins and the more or less numerous Cedar- 

 birds, which visit these trees at all hours of 

 the day, when the fruit is ripe, are never 

 disturbed at their repasts. 



"At Concord, where I have been culti- 

 vating a variety of fruit and berries for the 

 past six years, I had much trouble at first 

 because I did not allow sufficiently for the 

 depredations of the squirrels (gray, red 

 and ground squirrels), which, being care- 

 fully protected, were numerous and bold; 



