ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



997 



PROTECTION NOTES AND NEWS. 



Oregon- has fully enacted a no-sale-of-game law, 

 and her legislature has formally memorialized Cali- 

 fornia to be a good neighbor and do likewise. 



Wisconsin killed in committee, by a vote of 6 to 

 1, a bill intended to reopen spring shooting. 



New York's Senators and Assemblymen are going 

 to kill three bills to reopen the shooting of wild- 

 fowl in January, and two bills to reopen the sale 

 of game. 



Kansas has enacted no legislation adverse to wild 

 life, but on the contrary has given five-year close 

 seasons to quail and pinnated grouse. 



Arkansas, under the leadership of Edward A. 

 Mcllhenny, made a strong fight for a long list of 

 improvements in her wild life laws, but unprevent- 

 able accidents and calamities at the end of the ses- 

 sion robbed the workers of a victory that had been 

 earned. 



California is in the throes of a fierce struggle 

 between a band of determined and vigorous zoologists 

 and real sportsmen on one hand, and a host of hotel- 

 keepers, market-men and alleged "sportsmen"' on the 

 other. In the end. the Defenders of Wild Eife will 

 win every point for which they contend; because the 

 fight they are making is of the kind that always wins ! 



New Jersey has begun a legislative war on stray 

 cats that destroy wild life; and so has New York. 

 The New Jersey Assembly passed the cat license 

 bill, but in the Senate it was defeated. 



The legislature of Pennsylvania has just passed, 

 by good majorities, the long-contested bill for a 

 hunter's license law. For four long years this meas- 

 ure was fought by men of little judgment and less 

 patriotism, but the campaign so gallantly waged 

 by Commissioner John M. Phillips, Secretary Joseph 

 Kalbfus and the real sportsmen of Pennsylvania 

 finally has triumphed. Pennsylvania has also 

 enacted, unanimously, by both Houses of her 

 Legislature, a law prohibiting the sale of plum- 

 age of American birds for millinery, and to 

 place the herons, eagles, ravens and shrikes on 

 the list of protected birds. This was bitterly 

 fought by a lot of men who are masquerading as 

 "sportsmen,"' and doing much to disgrace the real 

 sportsmen of Pennsylvania. They permitted them- 

 selves to be used as the stalking-horses of the mil- 

 linery trade — and from this fact their real standing 

 as "sportsmen" can be judged. 



In Florida Mr. Charles Willis Ward has inaugu- 

 rated a movement to create a great bird preserve 

 along the Caloosahatchie River, practically from the 

 western Gulf coast to the Everglades. That region 

 is to-day well stocked with bird life, and if it can 

 be perpetually protected, it would soon contain a 

 great avian population. Undoubtedly the white 

 egrets will return — provided it is possible to pro- 

 tect them. 



Iowa still maintains, in spite of all protests, her 

 disgraceful spring-shooting habit. It is strange that 

 such a state should persistently maintain an attitude 

 so indefensible; but the new McLean law will work 

 beautifully in all such aggravated cases as this. 



In Massachusetts three bills to reopen the spring 

 shooting of waterfowl have been defeated, jointly 

 and severally, and a bill intended to permit the shoot- 

 ing of gulls has also been defeated. 



In Alaska the ruthless slaughter of cow moose 

 by Indians, at all seasons of the year, is reported 

 to be going merrily on. It is one of the anomalies 

 of our Indian system that the Alaskan Indian should 

 be regarded as a citizen of such paramount value 

 and importance to the world that he should be 

 granted game-slaughtering privileges clear beyond 

 the wildest dreams of the most sordid white man. 

 Ihe slaughter by Indians of Alaskan big game out 

 of season, and female animals at all times, should 

 be stopped, instantly. 



In Bering Sea the Norwegian whalers are now 

 killing walruses, wholesale, for their oil, hides and 

 ivory; and it is reasonably certain that the Pacific 

 walrus will be completely exterminated within ten 

 years from this date! This will be a very short and 

 easy task; and the museums of the world that de- 

 sire specimens of that marvelous animal are advised 

 to make all haste in securing them. Already the an- 

 nual slaughter is very serious ; and unfortunately 

 Bering Sea is not a "closed sea" in which killing at 

 sea can be controlled. 



From British Columbia comes the news that the 

 Elk River Game Preserve elk have increased to such 

 an extent that some people are clamoring for an 

 "open season." They simply can't abide seeing a 

 lot of meaty elk roaming the mountains unkilled. 



From Wyoming there comes from a reliable guide 

 the estimate that in all that state outside the Yellow- 

 stone Park there are at this time not more than 100 

 mountain sheep! The guide said: "If any friends 

 of yours want a ram, they'd better come right away!" 

 But no friends of ours will care to help exterminate 

 that remnant; and the people of Wyoming are fatu- 

 ous fools to permit any more sheep-killing within 

 their state. 



FEDERAL LAW FOR THE PROTEC- 

 TION OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 



[Public— No. 430, p. 23.] 



[Extract from an Act making appropriations for the 

 Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year end- 

 ing June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and fourteen.] 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 

 sentatives of the United States of America in Con- 

 gress assembled, All wild geese, wild swans, brant, 

 wild ducks, snipe, plover, woodcock, rail, wild pig- 

 eons, and other migratory game and insectivorous 

 birds which in their northern and southern migrations 

 pass through or do not remain permanently the entire 

 year within the borders of any State or Territory, 

 shall hereafter be deemed to be within the custody 

 and protection of the Government of the United 

 States, and shall not be destroyed or taken contrary 

 to regulations hereinafter provided therefor. 



The Department of Agriculture is hereby author- 

 ized and directed to adopt suitable regulations to 

 give effect to the previous paragraph by prescrib- 

 ing and fixing closed seasons, having due regard to 

 the zones of temperature, breeding habits, and times 



