The Audubon Societies 



99 



selected; he was the member of the Assem- 

 bly who introduced and successfully carried 

 to adoption the model law in his state in 

 1902. Mr. Mead's report is an interesting 

 one, and shows how little foundation there 

 was for the petition. As a matter of record, 

 the report is given in full : 



"Of the eighty-three names on the Lubec 

 and Trescott petition, I find but nineteen 

 are in any degree farmers. One man is 

 dead, four unknown, and the balance are 

 business men, mechanics, boatmen, laborers, 

 etc. I have personally interviewed fourteen 

 of the farmers, as well as several farmers who 

 were not petitioners, and the results are 

 almost confusing. I find no one making 

 complaints against the Gulls except for the 

 practice of feeding on the fish cuttings, or 

 'Scoots,' when spread on the land, and they 

 claim to be damaged annually from 10 per 

 cent to 75 per cent of the cost of the spread 

 fish. Several men have assured me that it 

 sometimes happens that while a man is at 

 the factory for a load, the Gulls will devour 

 a load already spread. The worst damage 

 they claim is done after the weather grows 

 cool in the fall ; early in the season (a few 

 men say until the middle of September in 

 ordinary years) the 'Scoots' spread decay 

 rapidly and the damage to them by Gulls is 

 not worthy of consideration. Those pushing 

 the bill strongest insist that June and July 

 are the only months that they are free from 

 the depredations. Some admit that Decem- 

 ber, or the fall of snow, ends all trouble, 

 while others just as strongly insist that the 

 danger on exposed, hilly farms, is equally 

 great all winter, inasmuch as the late-spread 

 fish, especially those kept some time in 

 pickle, remain intact all winter, unless 

 eaten by Gulls. For potatoes, grain, etc., 

 the 'Scoots' are plowed in and the injury 

 done is not worthy of consideration. It is 

 only when spread as a top-dressing for 

 grass land that the Gulls are attracted. The 

 farmers commence haying in July, but I 

 judge late in the month ; right after this, and 

 until winter, they do their fertilizing. The 

 'Scoots' in July are often given away by the 

 packers in order to get rid of them, but later 

 sell for from 75 cents to $1.50 per load of 

 ten or fifteen barrels' capacity, and are 



usually spread at the rate of two or three 

 loads per acre. I found two farmers who 

 said they protected their fields with dogs. 

 Another man has a piece of boiler iron near 

 his house on which his children pound with 

 a hammer and so frighten away the birds 

 for an hour at a time. Another man says 

 he can frighten them from his fields by 

 pounding his barn with a board, but he 

 added that 'pounding a barn with a board 

 wouldn't earn a living in Lubec' One 

 man, Walter Myers, thought the Gulls a 

 damage to him as a farmer, but a help to 

 him as a fisherman, inasmuch as they kept 

 his weir and the shore free from dead 

 fish." 



From the above report, it will be seen that 

 the greater part of the damage claimed is in 

 the late fall and winter months, at which 

 time there certainly can be very few Gulls 

 left in the state of Maine, as the great body 

 of them have migrated further south. 



A copy of this petition was sent to our 

 warden. Captain Fred. E. Small, in charge 

 of Old Man Island, Me., which is not very 

 far from Lubec, asking his opinion of the 

 merits of the complaint, and he replied as 

 follows: 



"I have heard some few complaints made 

 by farmers against Herring Gulls eating the 

 herring off their fields, but most of them 

 make an image of a man and put in the 

 field, which keeps the Gulls away. In 

 regard to their eating codfish or herring left 

 on boards to dry, there is no truth in such 

 reports. This is called the principal fishing 

 locality in Maine, and I have been in the 

 business myself and know what I am talk- 

 ing about; my opinion in regard to these 

 reports is that the petitioners are planning to 

 make a business of killing Gulls for market." 



Mr. Norton and Mr. Mead appeared at 

 the legislative hearing on the petition and 

 submitted all the facts gathered, and made 

 an appeal to the committee not to report the 

 amendment favorably. This appeal was suc- 

 cessful, and the Fish and Game Committee 

 reported adversely. 



This Association does not take the stand, 

 nor has it ever advocated the protection of 

 birds when it is conclusively proven that 

 they are doing more damage than good; at 



