ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1007 



all other amendments! The time to act is 

 NOW! There is not a day to be lost. State 

 your views to your Senators, and to the var- 

 ious members of the Senate Finance Commit- 

 tee, whose names appear below. If that 

 Committee will stand by our clause, it will 

 be passed as it stands! 



On May 22 a public hearing was granted all 

 persons desiring to be heard on this subject, 

 by a sub-committee consisting of Senators 

 Johnson (Me.), Hoke Smith (Ga.), and 

 Hughes ( New Jersey) . The milliners and their 

 attorneys were opposed by E. H. Forbush, 

 Henry Oldys, and W. T. Hornaday. The fight 

 in the Senate will continue without cessation 

 until Paragraph 3.5? has been accepted and 

 passed. The friends of the birds must not 

 go to sleep, because there is work to be done; 

 and there will be no truce in this war until 

 the President places his signature at the end 

 of the new tariff bill. All our friends in the 

 Senate must be asked to stand fast for the 

 prohibitory clause, exactly as it is. 



W. T. H. 



The Committee on Finance of the United 

 States Senate is as follows: 



Furnifold McL. Simmons, Chairman 

 John Sharp Williams Thomas P. Gore 

 William J. Stone Boise Penrose 



Charles F. Johnson Henry Cabot Lodge 

 Benjamin F. Shively Porter J. McCumber 

 Hoke Smith Reed Smoot 



Charles S. Thomas Jacob H. Gallinger 

 Ollie M. James Clarence D. Clark 



William Hughes 



Robert M. LaFollette 



AX AVIAN LANCER 



IF you have ever studied the cranes and 

 herons closely, you must have observed 

 two striking characteristics: the ability 

 to assume a pose so mechanically statuesque 

 as to defy the utmost concentration of your 

 vision to detect the slightest tremor, and the 

 swiftness and precision with which the slender 

 beak darts toward an object of attack. 



They stalk along the bank of a stream, or 

 through the grass of the paddock, watching 

 for insect life. The slightest movement of any 

 object is instantly observed, and so perfectly 

 has the habit of alertness been developed, 

 that the observance of the object and the 

 arrested action of the bird are exactly syn- 



chronous. There is not the faintest percep- 

 tible motion. The slender toes may be raised 

 but one inch from the ground, or three inches, 

 or perhaps will be held close to the body; but 

 there they remain until the eye of the ob- 

 server will be blurred in its search for a 

 possible quiver. 



Suddenly the long head is thrust forward 

 as though driven by a spring, with a force 

 so rapid that only the first and last of the 

 motions can be observed, and the luckless 

 grasshopper, frog, or whatever it may be, is 

 transfixed with unerring aim. 



Two sarus cranes are quartered on the 

 west side of the Park in an ample enclosure 

 in which a small shelter house has been placed 

 for the comfort of the cranes in wet seasons. 

 A mourning dove having selected the house, 

 as a possible nesting site, flew through the door 

 under the observance of the sponsor for this 

 tale. Just as the dove entered, one of the 

 cranes walked around the house and stopped 

 directly in the doorway in a position to ob- 

 struct the entrance, but not afford it a view of 

 the interior. 



Evidently this strange form bewildered the 

 dove, for it made a frantic dash for the light 

 and freedom. To gain the coveted freedom 

 necessitated a dangerous flight near the 

 sphinx-like sentinel. The blur of white at- 

 tracted the crane's eye, and without an in- 

 stant's hesitation he launched his merciless 

 beak. It was a small target and a difficult 

 one, but to this avian marksman it was as 

 good a mark as the willow wand to Locksley. 

 He struck full centre and the dove was hurled 

 spinning through the air. Fortunately the 

 blow did not touch a vital spot, and before the 

 crane could follow up the vantage, the dove 

 recovered and flew away. E. R. S. 



TEN TONS OF BIRD FEATHERS, BURNED. 



APPROXIMATELY 10 tons of feathers plucked four or 

 five years ago from the birds of the Hawaiian and 

 Midway Islands by poachers have just been destroyed by 

 Government scientists, who returned recently from a two 

 months' sojourn at Laysan Island. Since the enormous car- 

 goes of feathers were confiscated by the Federal officials sev- 

 eral years ago they have lain in the vaults of the Biological 

 Survey Department in Honolulu awaiting disposition. 

 It was only after the return of the Government scientists 

 from Laysan about a fortnight ago that definite instruc- 

 tions to destroy them was received. 



The job proved a big one that kept the party busily 

 engaged about a week, the last bags being consigned to 

 the Hames on the beach on Thursday. The lot con- 

 tained 201 bales, 10 tons by actual weight — United 

 States Consular Reports, April 21st, 1913. 



