58 



Bird - Lore 



but by the simple and inexpensive expedient 

 of increasing the number of fruit-bearing 

 plants of every kind, I was soon able to 

 supply the birds and squirrels with ail the 

 food of this kind that they cared for and to 

 obtain for myself more than two families 

 could use. I am quite aware that there are 

 men in New England who grow such 

 small fruits as cherries, raspberries and 

 strawberries on a large scale for the markets, 

 and who claim that the Robins, Catbirds 

 and Cedar-birds cause them very heavy 

 losses. I do not believe such assertions, for 

 whenever I have investigated them I have 

 found that they were practically without 

 foundation. The man who has fifty cherry 

 trees, or half an acre of strawberries or rasp- 

 berries, has nothing to fear from either birds 

 or squirrels ; he who has only one or two 

 cherry trees or only a few square yards 

 devoted to strawberries is likely to lose 

 almost his entire crop unless he protects his 

 trees and plants by netting, which is not a 

 difficult or expensive matter. 



"Of our native birds, the Robin unques- 

 tionably does the most damage to small 

 fruits, partly because of his greater abun- 

 dance, than any of the other fruit-eating 

 species and also because he spoils many a 

 fine berry by pecking into it. The English 

 Sparrow is still more destructive in this way. 

 The Cedar-bird is seldom numerous enough 

 to do much harm, and he never, as far as I 

 have observed, mutilates cherries or other 

 fruit which he does not eat. I have talked 

 with other fruit-growers in eastern Massa- 

 chusetts, and they agree that there is no 

 serious loss from Cedar-birds. When the 

 elm-leaf beetles first arrived in Cambridge, 

 four or five years ago, the Cedar-birds 

 assembled to prey on their larvae and were 

 of much service in this way." 



Pacific Islands.— Mr. William Alanson 

 Bryan, the Honolulu representative of this 

 Association, in a late letter states that "I 

 hear of no further poaching in the outlying 

 islands." How important and pleasing this 

 information is, and how great the change 

 from the conditions that obtained a few 

 years since, can best be understood by a com- 

 parison with the following account of the 



conditions that existed in 1902, at Midway 

 Islands*; "August 21, 1902, we reached 

 Sand, the larger of the two islets of the Mid- 

 way group. We found no signs of recent 

 occupants, other than the cast-off garments 

 of the colony of Japanese bird-poachers, to 

 whose work of destruction I shall later 

 refer. Everywhere on Eastern Island great 

 heaps, waist-high of dead Albatrosses {Dio- 

 medea immutabilis) Gooney, and Black- 

 footed Albatrosses [Diomedea nigripes) were 

 found. Thousands upon thousands of both 

 species had been killed with clubs, the wing 

 and breast feathers stripped off to be sold as 

 hat trimmings, or for other purposes, and the 

 carcasses thrown in heaps to rot. After my 

 acquaintance with the colony of bird pirates 

 on Marcus Island, it was but too apparent 

 that a similar gang had been in full opera- 

 tion at Midway not many months prior to 

 our visit, and that they had worked sad 

 havoc among the birds there, in spite of the 

 severe warning which had been given by 

 Captain Niblack, of the Iroquois, to a party 

 similarly engaged the season before. The 

 work of exterminating the Midway colony 

 was surely well under way, and I was con- 

 vinced that unless something definite was 

 done, and that at once, to prevent such wan- 

 ton destruction, before long this colony of 

 Albatrosses, as doubtless all those on the 

 low, outlying islands, would be wiped out 

 precisely as the one on Marcus Island had 

 been. 



"On my return to Honolulu I took the 

 matter up with the proper officials in Wash- 

 ington, among others addressing a letter to 

 the Chief Executive, with the result that the 

 subject was brought to the attention of the 

 various cabinet officers concerned. With 

 the cooperation of Dr. Palmer, of the United 

 States Biological Survey, together with the 

 energetic services of Mr. William Dutcher, 

 President of the Audubon Societies, to whom 

 the whole matter of bird protection for the 

 Pacific has been presented in person by the 

 writer, most satisfactory results have been 

 obtained. A naval vessel will, in the future, 



*Report of a visit to Midway Island by William Alan- 

 son Bryan. Extracted from Director's Annual Report, 

 igo?, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu. Also, 

 see Bird-Lore, Vol. VII, 1905, p. 301. 



