State Audubon Reports 445 



Texas. — It is with a sad heart and feehngs of utter inabiUty to do justice 

 to the subject, that this report of the work in Texas is submitted for the annual 

 publication of the history of bird-protection in our state. 



Most of the readers of this bulletin have doubtless heard of the removal 

 by death of the recognized genius of Audubon work in Texas, Capt. M. B. 

 Davis, of Waco. 



Captain Davis worked untiringly for years for the saving of our feathered 

 friends generally, and whenever opportunity came or occasion required he 

 trained his guns on the enemies of bird and wild hfe with such force and indis- 

 putable argument through lectures and the press that people sat up and took 

 notice. He made war on the gunner and the gun manufacturers until some of 

 his good friends thought he would defeat his own objects with his zeal for the 

 preservation of useful birds. His lectures throughout the state were continued 

 up to within a few weeks of his demise, and just ten days before he passed 

 away, on June 18, he dictated a letter to the National Secretary caUing attention 

 to his work for Heron and Egret life in special localities in this state which 

 he said would probably place our organization on a high plane as to that line 

 of survey. 



He continued, saying: "There have been many embarrassments, chief 

 of which is health on my part, but I forced my way through them all, and 

 unless I have a collapse I will turn over to you some very important matter 

 on this subject in the near future. 



"If I should merely submit a story of the region bounded by the 

 Trinity and Sabine Rivers, I could give a locality which is so vastly wealthy 

 in those forms of avian life that I do believe something wholly new should 

 be entered upon from the lists of American Herons and Egrets and other 

 birds of those tribes compassed within the area I have been searching, 

 which is a broad strip of that class of forests in Texas which are vestured 

 in Spanish moss, and wherever trees stand close enough together the soil 

 is protected for many miles around, producing in abundance the proper food 

 for these birds. The group of Herons discovered by me and my surveyor 

 in Jasper County have become absolutely safe, and will remain safe, we hope, 

 until once more their strangely beautiful white plumage becomes mdescribable 

 upon the heavens to which they surely belong. 



"Those people who appear to possess knowledge of heronries described 

 the bird as ascending to infinite heights, then returning to us rebaptised in 

 translucent sheen, which gave them a supernatural appearance." 



In closing, Captain Davis said: "I submit all that I do as comuig from my 

 heart, which burns with eagerness to accomplish an end in Ornithology which 

 shall go ringing down the ages and will eventually give me a place with you, 

 Mr. Dutcher, Doctor Palmer and those other gentlemen with whom I have 

 consorted all these years." 



Within a few days after the dictation of the foregoing message, all that 



