44 LEGISLATION FOE THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 



Audubon societies, now represented in twenty-three States. 1 While 

 these different organizations naturally overlap one another in their 

 fields of labor, they work harmoniously for the common cause. The 

 fish and game associations are naturally most active in protecting game 

 birds within their respective States, while the Audubon societies are 

 interested more especially in the protection of birds that are not game. 

 The activities of the latter societies are not necessarily limited by State 

 lines. Efforts are constantly made to extend the work in new fields, and 

 recently the Pennsylvania Audubon Society has done effective work for 

 the protection of insectivorous birds in Delaware. The labors of both 

 game associations and Audubon societies are supplemented by those of 

 the League of American Sportsmen and the committee of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union. The League has a membership of over 2,700, 

 and one of its main objects is the enforcement of game laws; it not only 

 prosecutes violations of State laws, but offers rewards to wardens in any 

 State who secure convictions. The American Ornithologists' Union 

 committee now has a special fund at its disposal which will be devoted 

 this year largely to protecting gulls and terns along the Atlantic coast. 

 In States where the importance of protection has long been recog- 

 nized and is strongly supported by public sentiment, fish and game 

 protection is in charge of a board of commissioners and regular 

 wardens are employed by the State to enforce the game laws. New 

 York includes forestry in the duties of its board, and has five com- 

 missioners of fisheries, game, and forests, but the majority of the 

 States combine fish and game matters, although a few consider the 

 subjects of sufficient importance to require the attention of separate 

 officials. Thus, Illinois has a State game commissioner, Pennsylvania 

 has a board of seven game commissioners distinct from its fish com- 

 mission, Rhode Island a board of five commissioners of birds, and 

 North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming have special game wardens. 



NECESSITY FOB FURTHER STATE LEGISLATION. 



In a suggestive paper on "The destruction of our birds and mam- 

 mals," Mr. William T. Hornaday 3 has made estimates of the decrease 

 in bird life in the United States during the last fifteen years, based on 

 reports from observers in thirty different States. 



Such estimates are of course merely matters of opinion, but never- 

 theless are interesting. Naturally there is a wide range in the opinions 

 of the various observers, and the alleged decrease of birds varies from 

 10 to 77 percent, while the average for the thirty States is 46 percent. 

 Nebraska shows a decrease of only 10 and Massachusetts of 27 percent, 



1 For a list of these commissions and the more important State associations, with 

 their officers, see Appendix to the Yearbook Dept. Agr., 1899, pp. 710-717. 

 1 Second Annual Report New York Zoological Society, p. 95, 1898. 



