212 
greater the trouble that will be experi- 
enced with the English Sparrow, and also 
with the Starling, where the latter has be- 
come established. They probably now 
occupy a territory around New York City 
the diameter of which is at least one hun- 
dred and fifty miles. Unless some means 
be devised to keep them in check, they 
will eventually drive away all hole-breed- 
ing birds between the sizes of the Bluebird 
and the Flicker. Starlings and English 
Sparrows are aggressive, and any person 
who hopes to increase the native box- and 
hole-breeding birds on his acres must ex- 
ercise a constant watchfulness, and al- 
ways be ready to succor and aid the de- 
sirable bird tenants. The satisfaction I 
have derived this year from my bird 
neighbors, and the help I am certain I 
have received from them, is my excuse for 
telling the story of my pleasant experi- 
ences in attracting and protecting birds.— 
W. D. 
Some Audubon Workers 
1. CAPTAIN M. B. DAVIS 
Capt. M. B. Davis, Texas Agent of the 
National Association of Audubon So- 
cieties and the Secretary of the Texas 
Audubon Society, is a veteran of two wars. 
He was born at Richmond, Virginia, Octo- 
ber 14, 1844, and was taken out of a mili- 
tary school in 1861, to assist in organizing 
the Confederate Army, which was being 
mobilized in the vicinity of Richmond. 
In July, 1861, when under seventeen 
years of age, he was wounded in battle on 
the Gauley River in West Virginia, but 
soon recovered, and, with the exception 
of periods in the hospital, while suffering 
with other wounds received in battle, he 
continued in General Robert E. Lee’s 
army until the surrender at Appomattox 
Court House, April 9, 1865. 
Soon after the close of the war, he went 
to Texas and enlisted in the Texas Rangers, 
serving between three and four years 
actively on the frontier against the 
Apache and the Lipan Indians. He also 
assisted, while a Ranger, with six-shooter 
and Winchester, in suppressing the white 
Bird - 
Lore 
outlaw gangs, most of the members of 
which were killed or turned over to civil 
authorities and hanged. 
Among the wounds received during the 
Civil War by Captain Davis was one on 
the left side of the head, and another 
under the left eye, the scars of which still 
continue visible and can be seen in the 
accompanying photograph. 
By. instinct a protector of wild life, 
Captain Davis organized the first Game 
and Bird Protective Association in Texas, 
in 1881. C. C. McCullough, deceased, 
was its president, and Herman Ambold, 
deceased, was its treasurer. Captain Davis 
was the Secretary, and in that capac- 
ity conducted a campaign through the 
press chiefly. In later years, the Audubon 
Society was started in Texas, but its most 
active workers were drowned on the Texas 
coast in September, 1900, in the great 
West Indian hurricane, which destroyed 
the city of Galveston, together with half 
of its population, and wrought untold 
horrors along the entire Gulf Coast. 
In 1903, the National Association of 
Audubon Societies sent agents into Texas 
and secured the passage of the Model 
Bird Law. In 1904, the Texas Audubon 
Society was re-organized, with Captain 
Davis as its secretary, and since that time 
he has been the most potential factor in 
that state toward the protection of wild 
birds and wild animals. He writes and 
lectures constantly on the subject of bird 
and game protection, and is exerting a 
wonderful influence for good. 
The ‘Times-Herald’, the daily paper of 
Waco, has this to say of his work: “Cap- 
tain Davis has waged a brilliant and suc- 
cessful campaign for bird protection for 
several years, and has succeeded in re- 
peopling the forests, the prairies, the 
meadows and the groves with bird life, 
which was rapidly reaching the point of 
total annihilation at the time he took hold 
of the work. To Captain Davis, more than 
to any other one man, is due the pro- 
tective laws on the Texas statute books. 
He, more than any one else, deserves the 
credit for the expulsion from the state of 
the market hunters and the plume hunters, 
