22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Mr Louis Agassiz Fuertes. Mr Fuertes is the president of the 

 Cayuga Bird Club and it is under his administration that the 

 " sanctuary " has been estabhshed. It is thus very fitting that some 

 account of this establishment be given in this place, for it may in 

 some sense be fair to reckon it among the fruits of our joint 

 endeavor. 



The account following has been prepared by Mr Fuertes : 



The " sanctuary " of the Cayuga Bird Club at Ithaca. It is the last bit 

 of virgin bottom-forest left in this vicinity. It lies at the very foot of the 

 falley, and Cayuga lake forms its northern boundary, except for a few acres 

 cf cleared land. All the forest is ours. It is watered by Fall creek and its 

 tayous; one can go all around in it in a canoe. I believe it contains about 

 30 or 40 acres, and is solid forest, composed of enormous sycamores along 

 the streams, giant water elms (two-thirds of the timber), a large amount of 

 silver maple, swamp white oak, butternut, walnut and ash, with a few tulip 

 trees; no evergreens and rather Carolinian in its nature; great willows, 

 too, abound around the edges and along the streams. The lower growth is 

 very interesting: quantities of benzoin, considerable winterberry {Ilex), a 

 little prickly ash, and any amount of Ruhus of various species where the 

 sun gets in. Large cat-tail marshes adjoin on both sides, though the biggest 

 have been filled for factory sites, etc. Over two hundred species of birds 

 have been recorded within the strict limits of the sanctuary. Enormous 

 vines of wild grape and Virginia creeper depend from the crowns of the 

 biggest trees ; much poison ivy and other climbing vegetation adds to the 

 natural beauty of the place. 



Until about eighteen months ago this land was part of a wild tract known 

 as the Renwick tract, and was put to no use except by the Sunday shooting 

 crowd, who used to build fires against the trees, and devasted it generally. 

 Then a wave of civic awakening came on, and the city voted $300 to " clear 

 up " this woodland, which was regarded as an unsightly " wilderness," with 

 the result that it liberated a crew of ignorant laborers with axes. This was 

 highly disastrous, and most of the spicebush and the biggest vines were 

 felled or severed, before anyone with a real knowledge of what to do knew 

 of it. Attention of the Board of Public Works was drawn at once to the 

 damage, by the Cayuga Bird Club. The work was immediately stopped, 

 considerable public attention directed toward the misstep, and after some 

 weeks of rather delicate diplomatic procedure, the thing came to a good 

 understanding, though no more funds were available for constructive work. 



Then the Cayuga Bird Club put in a request that the Renwick wildwood 

 be declared a bird sanctuary, that funds be voted for its maintenance, and 

 that its administration be put in the hands of the Cayuga Bird Club. The 

 club was then young, and the Common Council did not think it wise to commit 

 the land to an untried and recently organized society, but did set the area 

 aside permanently as a park, and extended the city- corporation line to include 

 it in . its entirety. This brings it within police protection, and has had an 

 excellent effect. 



When the budget was next made up, the city voted $100 voluntarily for 

 the improvement of the tract, and turned the entire sum over to the Cayuga 

 Bird Club to expend in the most advantageous way. With it we con- 



