The Audubon Societies 



175 



in that state. He sends the following 

 summary of final results: 



The game-protective measures passed 

 were: 



An Act prohibiting the use of motor 

 boats in hunting Ducks in Laco Bay. 



An Act providing protection for Eider 

 Ducks from February i to October i. 



An Act extending the close season on 

 Plover, Snipe and Sandpipers, so that the 

 season shall close on the first day of 

 December, as it does in the case of Grouse 

 and Woodcock, instead of May i as here- 

 tofore. 



An Act restoring Loons, Herons and 

 Kingfishers to the list of protected non- 

 game birds, providing that the Commis- 

 sioners of Portland Fisheries and Game 

 shall have authority to destroy the same, 

 when found in or around fish hatcheries. 



An Act establishing a close time on 

 Wood Duck for four years. 



An Act limiting the number of Ruffed 

 Grouse that may be taken by one person 

 in one day to five. 



An Act making the purchase of pro- 

 tected game birds illegal. 



And an Act providing that game seized 

 by the Commissioners, or their official 

 subordinates, shall not be sold, but dis- 

 tributed to hospitals or charitable insti- 

 tutions, and the said officials shall take a 

 receipt from the officials of the institu- 

 tions receiving the same. 



The following measures were opposed, 

 and were not passed by the Legislature. 



To allow one week in April to shoot 

 wild fowl in Merry Meeting Bay. 



To extend the open season on Black 

 Ducks in Casco Bay to February i, and 

 to allow the shooting of Whistlers the 

 same time, or a month longer, in the same 

 bay. 



Some Audubon Workers 



III. Frank Bond 



Another national bird reservation was 

 created on April 11, 191 1, by order of 

 President Taft. This is located in North- 

 ern California, and is to be known as Clear 

 Lake Reservation. It is number fifty-two 



in the list of places which the Government 

 has made sacred for the homes of wild 

 birds. 



The custom of protecting birds by 

 executive order began in 1903, when, on 

 March 14, President Roosevelt, by a 

 couple of strokes of his pen, provided that 

 Pelican Island in the Indian River,. 

 Florida, should be a perpetual home of 

 the wild birds that assemble there.- It 

 required a Roosevelt to inaugurate this- 

 hitherto undreamed of method of protect- 

 ing birds by governmental action. He 

 did this on the recommendation of Com- 

 missioner Richards, of the General Land 

 Office, who acted on the recommendations 

 of Mr. William Dutcher, Dr. T. S. Palmer, 

 of the Biological Survey, and others. A 

 few months before this occurrence, an. 

 earnest worker for the Audubon Society,. 

 Mr. Frank Bond, came to the Land Office 

 to serve as Chief of the Drafting Division. 

 He saw in the foregoing incident a great 

 opportunity to preserve the birds over 

 vast areas of territory yet owned b}' the 

 Federal Government. From many sources 

 he gathered information regarding lakes, 

 islands and swampy regions unsuited for 

 agricultural purposes, but formed, as if 

 nature had designed them to be the homes 

 of innumerable water-birds. He was a 

 Director of the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies, and thus kept in close 

 touch with its workers throughout Amer- 

 ican territory. Later Mr. Bond was made 

 Chief Clerk of the Land Office by Secretary 

 Garfield, which placed him in even a better 

 position to be of influence in the estab- 

 lishment of bird preserves. It was he who- 

 prepared the Executive Orders and impor- 

 tant explanatory letters of transmittal tcb 

 the President for the remaining fifty-one 

 reservations. These refuges are distrib- 

 uted widely: 



Ten are along the Florida coasts and 

 keys; four on Louisiana coast; two in Lake 

 Superior, Michigan; North Dakota, two;, 

 Oregon, three; Washington, eight; Cali- 

 fornia, three, and California and Oregon,, 

 one; Wyoming, three; Montana, one;, 

 Utah, one; Idaho, two; Arizona, one;, 

 Alaska, six; Hawaiian Islands, one; South 



