134



Correspondence.



CORRESPONDENCE.



BIRD PROTECTION IN AMERICA.


Dr. W. T. Hornaclay writes : I am tempted to send you a photograph which

may well be called “An Object-Lesson in the Protection of Wild Fowl.” The

picture was taken by our photographer in the Wichita National Bison Range, in

South-western Oklahoma, Oklahoma, U.S.A., about seven years ago, after the

Range was established and the preservation of all bird life within it seriously

began.


Eight years ago only an occasional pair or a very small flock of Wild Ducks

could be found on the waters of the small streams shown in the photograph. Now

the Ducks congregate there, to rest and feed, literally in thousands.


The last Passenger Pigeon that for twenty-one years lived in the Cincinnati

Zoological Gardens, and which finally became the sole survivor of its species, died

on September 1st, 1914, and its remains were sent to the National Museum at

Washington.


Perhaps you will be interested in the fact that the fund which I began to

raise by subscription, for the ^permanent protection of wild life, has now reached

$51,200. I have called it the “ Permanent Wild life Protection Fund,” and its

income is to be expended on the firing line for the next hundred years or more.

It is my intention to finally bring the fund up to $100,000, but for the pi'esent the

war has interfered with my efforts.


It may be that you will be interested in a great fight waged in California by

the Portuguese and Italian game dealers and market-gardeners, and a few hotel and

restaurant keepers, to re-open the sale of game throughout the State of California.

They sought the repeal of the law against the sale of game. That law was enacted

after a great contest, and all sorts of unfair methods were resorted to to persuade

voters to give the “ poor working man ” a chance to buy Wild Ducks at $2 a pair !

The wild life protectionists of California are waging a great battle, and I feel very

sure that they will win.


IN THE PELICAN COUNTRY.


To the Editor of the ‘ Avicultural Magazine.'


Dear Sir, — I am enclosing you some photos of the beautiful White Pelicans

of Oregon, which may perhaps be of use to you. I wish I could write something

of interest for you to use, but helas, I have little talent along those lines, much as

I love birds and Nature. We have spent the summer motoring in the mountains

of California and Oregon, fishing and camping. I could write a lot about camping

with an automobile; how one’s tent slips on over the top of the car and is put up

in a few moments ; the perfect comfort of pneumatic mattresses pumped up with the

pump of the motor, also in a very few minutes ; of folding tables and armchairs,

cookstoves equipped with gasoline for fuel, rubber bath tub, guns and fishing tackle,

all finding their place in the roomy tonneau of a big Cadillac Eight, and of two

elderly people wandering from one beautiful spot to another throughout the

ong dry summer months of this lovely country ; but that would not be “ bird

articles.”



