g50 * James Buckland. 



three of the wardens have been murdered while in discharge of 

 their duties. 



Little more than a decade of years ago there was no more 

 populous water-fowl district in the world than through the lake 

 region of southern Oregon, one of the western States of the 

 American Union. It was, in fact, the nursery of the immense 

 flocks of migrating water-fowl of the Pacific Coast. 



Professor W. W. Cooke, of the Biological Survey, states, in 

 one of the Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture, 

 that hundreds of tons of ducks were killed each season simply 

 for their green wing feathers, and the bodies thrown away. 



White herons, swans, geese, pelicans, ibises, terns, and other 

 species too numerous to mention, were all destroyed in a similar 

 way, and for the same paltry end. 



The grebe colonies which were scattered round these lakes 

 were probably the most extensive in the world. It was from here 

 that the feather merchants for years obtained the bulk of their 

 supplies of the silvery breast feathers of this bird. During the 

 last seven or eight breeding seasons there were from twenty to 

 thirty camps of plume-hunters stationed on the borders of these 

 lakes engaged solely in killing grebes. Wagons visited the camps 

 regularly about three times a week to collect the skins. This 

 furious slaughter continued until it became only too evident that 

 unless something were done to save them from the feather 

 dealer, not a grebe would he left alive. At this critical juncture, 

 President Roosevelt — who has done more for the preservation 

 of wild life than any man who ever lived — came to the rescue, and 

 in August, 1908, set aside three of these lakes as bird reservations. 



But the agents of the feather merchants had not quite 

 exhausted the supply, and they had no intention of allowing the 

 law to stand in the way of their doing so. Last breeding season 

 there were six indictments filed against plume-hunters for 

 shooting grebes on these reservations. These indictments cited 

 the killing of 400 grebes by one hunter, 800 by a second hunter, 

 and 1000 by a third hunter. 



As an object lesson on the respect the feather dealer pays 

 to bird-protection laws, this final massacre may serve a useful 

 purpose. 



The importance of guano as a fertilizer was recognised in 

 Peru by the Indians more than 300 years ago. Under the Incas, 

 the birds on the Chincha Islands were carefully protected, and 

 the deposits of guano rigidly guarded. It is said that the penalty 

 of death was inflicted on any one who killed birds near these 

 rocks in the breeding season. 



Now let us turn to the guano-producing islands in our own 

 time, and scan the Report of William Alanson Bryan, LTnited 

 States Special Inspector of Birds and Animals. In this official 



