I40 



Bird -Lore 



precincts of shrines and temples; and shoot- 

 ing mav be prohibited within certain limits 

 by the ojovernor of a prefecture, if he deems 

 it necessary to take such action 



Licenses are required to trap or shoot, and 

 these licenses must be carried by the owner 

 when in the field, must be returned to the 

 authorities who granted them within thirty 

 days after the date of expiration, and <ire 

 subject to inspection by police, gendarmes, 

 forest officers, or the chief of a city, town 

 or village. 7\vo series of licenses are in 

 use : ^, for capture of live birds or game 

 with nets, lime rope or lime twigs, and 

 B, for shooting. Each series is issued in 

 three colors, for three different classes of 

 persons, determined by the amount of taxes 

 paid by the holder. First-class licenses 

 (buff) are issued upon payment of 20 yen 

 (f 10) to persons paying not less than 100 

 yen income tax, 500 yen land tax, or 150 

 yen business tax ; second - class licenses 

 (green) are issued upon payment of 10 yen 

 (I5) to persons paying not less than 3 yen 

 income tax, 30 yen land tax, or 20 yen busi- 

 ness tax. Third-class licenses (red) are 

 issued to persons not belonging to either the 

 first or the second class. The same rates 

 apply to any members of the holder's family. 



It will be noticed that although the law 

 protects a number of birds, and among 

 them several Hawks and Owls, it extends 

 no protection whatever to Grebes, Gulls, 

 Terns, Ducks, Geese or other water-birds 

 or to many of the land-birds. Two species 

 which are conspicuous in millinery trim- 

 mings, the White Tern and the Japanese 

 Waxwing, are apparently unprotected. If 

 the list of protected species were extended to 

 include these and some others, and provi- 

 sions were added covering export of birds 

 or feathers and possession and sale of 

 plumage, Japan would have a law which, 

 properly enforced, ought to accomplish its 

 object of effectively protecting both game- 

 aiul other binls. 



National Committee Notes 



By ihk Chairman 



A statesman once said that a country could 



not be prosperous or happy unless it had a 



public debt, as otlu-rwise the people would 



not be interested in the welfare of the state. 

 If this be the correct standard, the National 

 Committee has every reason for congratula- 

 tion, as, notwithstanding the utmost efforts 

 of the Chairman, along the line of scrimping 

 and saving, a big deficit at the end of the 

 fiscal year is staring him in the face. War- 

 dens must be paid, according to agreement; 

 the educational leaflets should not be dis- 

 continued, but all this costs money, and the 

 outgo for some time has been larger than the 

 income, and the balance on hand of the 

 Thayer Fund has been growing less and less. 

 This is our public debt, and how can the 

 Audubon members and the readers of Biro- 

 Lore be happy and contented unless they 

 personally take the matter of finance to heart? 

 The hundred thousand Audubon members 

 in the United States can, with very little in- 

 dividual exertion, secure one dollar each to- 

 ward the permanent endowment of the 

 National Committee. There are thousands 

 of persons who simply need the work of the 

 Audubon Societies brought to their attention 

 in order that they may become liberal sup- 

 porters of it. Will not the junior Audubon 

 members, everywhere, start at once a popuiar 

 subscription of small amounts, to be placed 

 in the permanent endowment fund? How 

 proud and happy every junior will be in 

 after-life to know that he took part in the 

 initial movement to endow and thus perpet- 

 uate the work of the Audubon Societies! 



By a letter vote, which was almost unani- 

 mous, it has been decided to incorporate the 

 National. Committee in the State of New 

 York. The corporate name, ' National,' 

 will indicate the scope of the work. The 

 corporation laws of New York State do not 

 make it necessary for more than one of the 

 trustees and members of the Committee to 

 reside in that state. The act of incorpora- 

 tion has not been completed as yet, owing 

 to the time it has taken to determine the 

 state in which to incorporate; however, sub- 

 stantial progress has been made. 



Glorious news from Louisiana! The 

 moilel law for non-game birds will be in force 

 in that state on and after August 9! Look 

 back! Two years since, the effort for good 

 bird-legislation was defeated, and today the 

 state has the be^t non-game bird -law in the 



