THE A. O. U. BIRD PROTECTIVE COMMITTEE, 



THE first official notice of the greatly 

 increased destruction of our birds 

 was taken by the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, which made the first systematic ef- 

 fort to combat this evil. Previous to 1884, 

 although individuals had called attention to 

 this subject in the public prints, no steps 

 had been taken to enforce the existing laws 

 on the subject, nor had any organized 

 scheme of work been suggested which 

 promised satisfactory results. 



At the second meeting of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union, held at the American 

 Museum of Natural History in the city of 

 New York, Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, 1884, atten- 

 tion was called to the subject of bird de- 

 struction, as is shown by the following ex- 

 tract from the official proceedings printed 

 in the Auk for October, 1884: 



" Mr. Brewster called attention to the 

 wholesale slaughter of birds, particularly 

 terns, along our coast for millinery pur- 

 poses, giving some startling statistics of 

 this destruction, and moved the appoint- 

 ment of a committee for the protection of 

 North American birds and their eggs 

 against wanton and indiscriminate destruc- 

 tion, the committee to consist of six, with 

 power to increase its number, and to co- 

 operate with other existing protective 

 associations having similar objects in view. 

 After earnest support of the motion by 

 Messrs. Brewster, Chamberlain, Coues, 

 Goss, Merriam and Sennett, it was unan- 

 imously adopted, and the following gen- 

 tlemen were named as constituting the 

 committee: Wm. Brewster, H. A. Purdie, 

 George B. Grinnell, Eugene P. Bicknell, 

 Wm. Dutcher and Frederic A. Ober." 



During the ensuing year this Committee 

 did nothing. The ill health of the chairman 

 prevented his entering actively on the work 

 originally contemplated, and he felt obliged 

 to resign the chairmanship. It was impos- 



sible to find any one who could take his 

 place, and so the year went by. 



At the third meeting of the A. O. U., 

 held at the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York, Nov. 17 and 18, 1885, 

 the subject was brought up again and dis- 

 cussed at some length, great interest being 

 manifested by all those present. The Com- 

 mittee was continued. 



Early in December in the same year the 

 Committee met at the office of Mr. William 

 Dutcher in New York, and organized by 

 the election of Mr. G. B. Sennett as chair- 

 man and Mr. E. P. Bicknell as secretary. 

 Several new members were added to the 

 Committee, and some discussion of plans 

 and methods followed, and it was deter- 

 mined to hold meetings each week at the 

 American Museum of Natural History. 

 Sub-committees were appointed to collect 

 statistics as to the destruction of birds-, the 

 trade in their skins for millinery purposes, 

 and to obtain a full series of the legislative 

 enactm^ents in the different States with 

 regard to bird protection. It seemed to the 

 Committee that for the present its most im- 

 portant field of work was the diffusion 

 among the people at large of information 

 respecting the magnitude of the destruction 

 of bird life for purely mercenary purposes, 

 and its necessarily terrible influence in 

 diminishing the number of birds. Not less 

 important was deemed the creation of a 

 healthy sentiment against the use of birds 

 for decorative purposes. 



At the second meeting Mr. Allen brought 

 up the subject of publishing some of the 

 facts in the Committee's possession, and at 

 the following meeting he announced that 

 arrangements had been made with the 

 Science Company to have an early supple- 

 ment of Science devoted entirely to the com- 

 mittee's work. Mr. Allen was requested to 

 assume editorial charge of this, supplement, 



