Reports of Affiliated Organizations 



75 



truction of bird-life by waste oil on the ocean. It is hoped that some information 

 will be forthcoming in the near future, and that measures may be inaugurated 

 for the suppression of this scourge to the ocean avifauna, which has assumed 

 alarming proportion off our California coast. An investigation as to the killing 

 of birds at the lighthouses of the Pacific Coast is also under way, and some 

 thirty-six letters have been received from lighthouse keepers in answer to a 

 list of questions sent out. The study of these letters promises to shed some new 

 light on the destruction of birds at such places and also some interesting 

 facts as to the migrating habits and routes of travel of our Pacific Coast 



migrants. 



Lectures have been given at 

 the monthly meetings, the sub- 

 jects presented covering interesting 

 features of research on matters 

 ornithological, both in local and 

 foreign fields. The list of speakers, 

 a veritable scientific galaxy, in- 

 cludes Grinnell, Storrer, Bryant, 

 Loomis, Evermann, Maillard, and 

 others. Frequently, lantern illus- 

 trations were by cinematographs 

 and slides, taken by members 

 themselves. 



Field-trips under the guidance 

 of some local expert have been 

 made at frequent intervals. These 

 trips have proved most attractive, 

 as well as educational, careful 

 notes of each trip being secured 

 by the 'historian' appointed for 

 the day. These are read at the 

 following open meeting of the Association, after which they are printed 

 and filed with the Library records. 



The trip of August 3 to the Farallon Islands was of more than passing in- 

 terest. These Islands lie in the Pacific Ocean, 25 miles off the Golden Gate, 

 and are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce. They are well 

 known as of special ornithological interest, being the nesting-place for ocean- 

 going birds and teeming with bird-life in the breeding-season, and once being a 

 favorite haunt for egg-poachers, as recorded in the encyclopedias. The Federal 

 Government prohibits visitors to the Islands, but, in recognition of the Associa- 

 tion's work, honored it as a special guest, taking us to and from the light- 

 house tender. It seemed to the members of the Association that the super- 

 abundance of Western Gulls was probably a factor in the evidently steady 



CHASE LITTLEJOHN AND AMY E. GUNN 

 INTERVIEWING A BABY PUFFIN 



