Todd : Birds of Erie and Presque Isle. 491 



few species which were once common are now rarely seen. Although 

 the Peninsula is government property, and as such is carefully pro- 

 tected from other forms of vandalism, there is absolutely no restriction 

 placed upon the extermination of its feathered inhabitants. The 

 place is overrun with pot-hunters, market-gunners, and irresponsible 

 sportsmen, who keep the game constantly stirred up, and whose per- 

 nicious activity has resulted in driving away not only many species 

 which are considered legitimate objects of pursuit, but also numerous 

 other kinds, which, if not valuable for economic or sesthetic reasons, 

 are at least harmless. Immense bags of wild-fowl and shore-birds are 

 sometimes made by ignorant and conscienceless gunners, actuated by 

 greed of gain, or merely by the desire to kill, and the game-laws are 

 being constantly violated. Of course, such slaughter, all too common 

 as it is throughout the country, will eventually render its own con- 

 tinuance impossible. In the present case the abolition of spring 

 shooting, which would require for its consummation a legislative 

 enactment, would most certainly inure to the limitation of this 

 destruction. A restriction upon the number of birds which one per- 

 son may kill in a day would tend in the same direction. The prohi- 

 bition of all shooting, or, if need be, of all trespassing, upon the 

 Peninsula and its adjacent waters, would be a most effectual measure. 

 There is no reason why various species of ducks and other water-birds 

 should not breed about the ponds and marshes of Presque Isle ; the 

 conditions, all save that of insufficient protection, are unaltered from 

 former years, when such was regularly the case. Finally, the strict 

 enforcement of the game-laws and the education of public sentiment 

 would be of inestimable advantage, and might yet avail to prevent the 

 threatened extermination of some forms of bird-life at this interesting 

 locality. 



In the present connection some general observations on the avifauna 

 of Erie contributed by Mr. Samuel E. Bacon, a conscientious observer, 

 whose extensive experience adds value to his statements, are of such 

 interest that they are deemed worthy of insertion. "As regards the 

 relative abundance of birds now (1903) as compared with 1888, 

 when I first began taking notes, I hardly know what to say. I cer- 

 tainly think that the song-birds have held their own. The birds of 

 prey seem to have sadly diminished. Ten or fifteen years ago the first 

 mild days in spring used to bring hawks by the hundreds, but of late 

 years it is seldom that more than a pair are in sight at once. A 



