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Bird-Lore 



George H. Mackay, of Massachusetts, de- 

 serves special mention, inasmuch as, single- 

 handed, he has been the means of securing 

 the adoption of laws the influence of which 

 reaches far beyond the borders of his own 

 state. Among them is the section relating 

 to shore and marsh birds ( Limicolas ) , 

 which reads as follows: "Whoever buys, 

 sells, exposes for sale or has in possession 

 any of the birds named in and protected by 

 sections five or seven of this chapter, during 

 the time within which the taking or killing 

 thereof is prohibited, whenever or wherever 

 the aforesaid birds may have been taken or 

 killed, shall be punished by a fine of ten 

 dollars for each bird." 



That this beneficent law has been the 

 means of saving the lives of thousands of 

 shore-birds during the spring migration of 

 1904 is proved by the following: Dr. L. B. 

 Bishop states: "Capt. E. Z. Gould, the 

 chief market hunter of shore-birds in Dare 

 county, N. C, writes me that the new 

 Massachusetts law preventing the sale of 

 spring-shot shore-birds has made him give 

 up shooting this spring. In addition to his 

 own gun, he had four men shooting for him 

 in the spring of 1902." Mr. Mackay 

 writes : " You can add to the Gould episode 

 from North Carolina another from New 

 Jersey. W. E. Horner & Co., of West 

 Creek, large shippers of spring birds, wrote to 

 a firm of game dealers in Boston asking how 

 many birds the firm could handle this spring. 

 The reply was that they could not handle 

 any, owing to the new law. Undoubt- 

 edly this law affected many other por- 

 tions of the country; market hunters will 

 not kill birds that they cannot sell or dispose 

 of. The sportsmen of the country certainly 

 owe to Mr. Mackay a debt of gratitude for 

 this admirable legislation, which will do 

 much to perpetuate the fast-disappearing 

 shore- and marsh-birds. 



A short tour of inspection along the Vir- 

 ginia coast was taken by the Chairman early 

 in July, the details of which will be given 

 in the annual report of the Committee; for 

 the present it is only necessary to state that 

 the most determined and watchful guardian- 

 ship will be necessary for a long period to 

 prevent the gradual but sure disappearance 



of the marsh- and beach-breeding birds of 

 that section. 



Mr. William Alanson Bryan, Curator of 

 Birds of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum 

 of Honolulu, H. I., has been in the States 

 for some months on professional work. While 

 he was in New York City a conference was 

 held with the Chairman, with the result 

 that Mr. Bryan will return to his home 

 thoroughly enthused with the idea of estab- 

 lishing a Hawaiian Audubon Society, which 

 will. not only undertake to protect the birds 

 of the Island of Oahu, but of all the islands 

 of the Hawaiian group, and in addition 

 such of the other Oceanic Islands as are 

 under the jurisdiction of the United States. 

 To that end he will prepare a detailed 

 statement of the conditions which obtain at 

 the several islands, with the needs for protec- 

 tion and with suggestions as to means to 

 prevent the extinction of certain island forms 

 of birds which have already become exceed- 

 ingly rare. His report will be addressed 

 to the Chief Executive of the United States, 

 President Roosevelt, trusting that his great 

 interest for bird preservation will cause him 

 to direct the report into the proper channels 

 for governmental aid. In this connection it 

 is suggested that the British and German 

 Societies for the Protection of Birds ask 

 their respective Governments to give protec- 

 tion to the birds indigenous to the Polyne- 

 sian Islands severally belonging to them. 

 Mr. Bryan states that there is a Japanese 

 corporation which is now actively engaged 

 in collecting sea-birds' plumage for the 

 Berlin, Paris and London feather markets. 



Rev. W. R. Lord, of Massachusetts, on 

 the invitation of a number of bird -lovers in 

 Washington, visited in June that far-off 

 northwestern state. During the month he 

 was there he delivered many lectures and 

 gave bird talks to a large number of teachers, 

 scholars and the general public, with the 

 result that great interest in bird pro- 

 tection was aroused. Mr. Lord writes that 

 undoubtedly a little later in the season an 

 Audubon Society will be formally launched 

 in Washington. On his way home Mr. Lord 

 stopped at Detroit, Michigan, and gave an 

 illustrated bird talk in that city under the 

 auspices of the Michigan Audubon Society. 



