ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



865 



calamity of this sort might easily result in total 

 extermination. Even now. there can be no doubt 

 that the Holboell Grebe has experienced a severe 

 check, from which it may be some time in re- 

 covering. In the Auk for April. 1912. John H. 

 Sage records that "an unusual flight of Colym- 

 bus holboelli was noticed here during the month 

 of February. 1912." At least ten helpless birds 

 are known to have been picked up, most of them 

 unable to rise from the ice which covered the 

 Connecticut River. The effects of the severe 

 winter, then, were evidently widespread, and one 

 can readily believe that the ranks of a species 

 even so widely distributed as Colymbus holboelli, 

 have been very materially reduced. L. S. C. 



Ducks need no protection. Inasmuch as the 

 natives are unable to shoot on the wing, but few 

 ducks are killed; and the snipe are migratory 

 and do not nest here." 



AN AMERICAN BIRD PROTECTOR 



IN SAMOA 



Extract from a letter written by Mason 



Mitchell, American Consul at Apia 



"For the past year or more I have been try- 

 ing to induce the German Governor of Samoa. 

 Dr. Schultz, to issue laws to protect the birds 

 of these islands. With the exception of the 

 Tooth-Billed pigeon, no protection has been 

 given to any bird. In consequence of this, the 

 Lupi (Lavender-Neck Fruit-Pigeon), has de- 

 creased over fifty per cent, in the last ten years. 

 Without protection, five years hence, they will 

 be as scarce as the Manumea (Tooth-Billed 

 Pigeon), especially if they are not protected in 

 the breeding season. Formerly they were the 

 most numerous of the six varieties of pigeons 

 found on these islands. They are extensively 

 shot for food, and are sold by the natives at 

 twenty-five cents each. 



"No one. either white or native, knew when 

 or where the Lupi nested ; and some averred they 

 migrated to other islands to breed. This I have 

 found to be untrue, for they nest in these islands, 

 high up in the forest trees, in the parasitic plant 

 which grows in tree-forks, called by the Samoans 

 the laumapapa. or in English the bird's nest 

 plant (Asplenium nidus). They hatch in Oc- 

 tober. I have seen both their nests and young 

 birds. For this interesting bird I have advised 

 a close season from August first to December. 



"The Governor informs me the common coun- 

 cil will take the matter up, and be guided by 

 my advice. If they fail to do so. it will be 

 another case like that of the passenger pigeons 

 in America. 



"I have secured protection for all the perch- 

 ing birds, for all time, in addition to all birds 

 outside of the two varieties of fruit pigeons, the 

 aquatic birds, and members of the snipe family. 



NEW MEMBERS 



December 12, 1911 to April 1. 1912 



LIFE MEMHERS 



Henry Ford. 

 Mrs. Henrv F. Dimock, 

 Carl E. Akeley, 

 Samuel F. Sanford, 



Dr. John C. Phillips, 

 Marion McMillin, 

 Allison V. Armour, 

 Z. Marshall Crane, 



Dr. Frederic A. Lucas, Dr. Raymond C. Osburn, 

 Prof. Henry E. Crampton, Prof. Frederic S. Lee, 

 Dr. W. D. Matthew, Prof. Gary X. Calkins, 



Dr. William K. Gregory, Prof. Albert S. Bickmore, 

 Lee S. Crandall. 



AX'XCAI. MEMBERS 



C. Bahnsen, 

 Ralph Smillie, 

 Mrs. Ansel Phelps, 

 Charles F. Adams, 

 Louis Frank, 

 Frank H. Keen, 

 Philip Rhinelander, 

 S. D. Waldon, 

 Judge Carroll Sprigg, 

 Dr. George W. Meyer, 

 Mrs. John R. Drexel, 

 Mrs. Frederick Pearson, 

 Wm. Ross Proctor, 

 Hamilton T. Kean, 

 Mrs. Evans R. Dick, 

 Gerard H. Huntman, 

 Mrs. Glover C. Arnold, 

 Mrs. Jules S. Bache, 

 Mrs. Edward Holbrook, 

 Mrs. John X. Tonnele, 

 Mrs. Henry R. Hoyt, 

 Mrs. James Byrne, 

 Mrs. J. Clifton Edgar, 

 Mrs. Valentine Mott, 

 Mrs. William Alexander, 

 -Mrs. Robert Waller, 

 Miss Louise Murray, 

 Mrs. Charles Scribner, 

 Airs. John T. Pratt, 

 Mrs. Harry J. Luce, 

 Mrs. John T. Terry, Jr., 

 Mrs. B. Avmar Sands, 

 Mrs. William H. Hyde, 

 Henry G. Gray, 

 R. Burnside Potter, 

 Joseph Walburn, 

 Warren Kinney, 

 Mrs. Charles H. Tweed, 

 Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid. 

 Mrs. Augustus B. Field, 

 Francis S. Male, 

 Miss Edith McCoon, 

 George J. Openhym, 

 George L. Williams, 

 Henry F. Keil, 

 Mrs. Avmar, 



Mrs. F. D. Millet, 



Mrs. R. Burnside Potter, 



Henry Stuart Patterson, 



Mrs. James B. Clews, 



Wolcott G. Lane, 



Hugo Lieber, 



Miss Pope, 



-Mrs. E. M. Townsend, 



Mrs. Ralph Sanger, 



Mrs. Charles Sheldon, 



Herbert Wm. Ferris', 



Mrs. Leigh Hunt, 



Mrs. Joseph Dowd, 



Wilfred C. Leland, 



P. C. Cartier, 



John Dryden Kuser, 



Albert fag, 



Dr. Clinton L. Bagg, 



Stephen Birch, 



J. E. Roth, 



Mrs. Henry P. Davison, 



Mrs. Malcolm Stuart, 



Harold W. Beder, 



H. Grant Straus, 



Arthur Chapman, 



James Barnes. 



Mrs. Chauncey M. Depew, 



Mrs. Butler Williamson, 



William Forbes Morgan, Jr., 



Mrs. John E. Alexandre, 



Mrs. A. Barton Hepburn, 



Mrs. Joseph A. Flannery, 



Miss Mildred Gautier Rice, 



Mrs. Isaac Vail Brokaw, 



Mrs. Wm. Curtis Demorest, 



Mrs. D. Hunter McAlpin, Jr., 



Mrs. John Black Stewart, 



Mrs. Harry H. Whitlock, 



Mrs. Wm. Crittenden Adams, 



Miss Eliza O'B. Lummis, 



Mrs. Henry Ladd Corbett, 



Miss Henrietta Prentiss, 



Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, 



Mrs. Charles Warren Hunt, 



Dr. Governeur Morris Phelps, 



Mrs. Wm. M. Kingsland, 



