66 



Bird - Lore 



at the meeting of the Royal Colonial In- 

 stitute, held at the Hotel Metropole, Lon- 

 don, December 20, 1910, on the subject 

 'The Birds of our Colonies and their Pro- 

 tection,' he states some interesting facts 

 regarding the destruction of birds for 

 millinery ornaments. 



The Emu {Dromaius), in Australia, is 

 confined every year to a more restricted 

 range. The birds have been pursued for 

 their feathers until they have been exter- 

 minated absolutely in Tasmania, Victoria 

 and South Australia. During the past 

 year, only 1,019 skins were found in the 

 London markets. 



The Lyre-bird (Menura) of Australia, 

 he declares, is rapidly approaching extinc- 

 tion. Evidence of this, as shown by the 

 millinery trade of London, is that a few 

 years ago as many as four hundred of the 

 tails of this bird were catalogued there in 

 a single season. The number has grad- 

 ually decreased, until in 1910 only fifty- 

 two appeared in the London markets. 



The Blue Bird of Paradise (Paradis 

 ornis rudulphia) of Papua, as British 

 New Guinea is now officially called, is 

 one of the species that has been relent- 

 lessly killed by the men who care nothing 

 for birds except for the money which 

 their feathers bring. Mr. Buckland says: 

 "So fiercely has the bird been persecuted 

 for its plumes that any hour now the report 

 of some plume-hunter's gun may sound 

 the knell of the last living representative 

 of the species." He further states that 

 the birds had become so , carce, by 1908, 

 that in that year he found only twelve 

 skins in the London market, and these 

 were in imperfect condition. 



Speaking of Hummingbirds, he calls 

 attention to the fact that their destruction 

 for feathers in the West Indies has been 

 so overwhelming that certain species, with 

 a restricted habitat, have been swept out 

 of existence. — T. G. P. 



Notes From the Field 

 VERMONT 



The legislature of Vermont, which 

 opened the first Monday in October and 



closed just prior to the holidays, enacted 

 three laws which are decided steps forward 

 in the matter of bird and game protection. 

 These were: 



First. — A bill providing a close season 

 for six years on the Wood Duck. 



Second. — A bill which will stop the 

 shooting of does, as the act allows only 

 the shooting of deer with horns six inches 

 in length or more. 



Third. — An act establishing the ofiice 

 of State Ornithologist, with sufficient 

 money in sight to pay for the services of 

 such an officer. 



This Association was represented at 

 the legislature by Mr. E. H. Forbush, who 

 not only was responsible in large part for 

 the passage of these beneficial measvires, 

 but also used his influence to defeat sev- 

 eral bills of a detrimental character, which 

 the opponents of bird protection were 

 seeking to have enacted. 



NEW JERSEY 



The New Jersey Audubon Society was 

 incorporated on December 15, 1910, with 

 headquarters at Trenton. On December 

 27, the former Society, known as the 

 Audubon Society of the State of New 

 Jersey, formally dissolved, and on the 

 29th of December the official meeting 

 of the Trustees of the New Jersey Audu- 

 bon Society was held, and on this occasion 

 the secretary of the late Audubon Society 

 of the State of New Jersey turned over 

 to the new organization the balance in 

 the treasury, amounting to $81.75. 



The officers elected were as follows: 

 President, George Batten, of Montclair; 

 First Vice-President, W. DeW. Miller, of 

 Plainfield; Treasurer, John T. Nichols, of 

 Englewood; Secretary, Beecher S. Bowdish 

 of Demarest. 



The meeting, besides endorsing the 

 action of the incorporators in their selec- 

 tion of trustees and their drafting of 

 constitution and by-laws, together with 

 the act of incorporation, also took under 

 consideration several methods of intro- 

 ducing and developing bird instruction 

 in the schools, as well as the legislative 

 program for the coming season. — T. G. P 



I 



