52 
LORQUINIA 
power rifles will soon spell the end of the deer hunting unless the 
season is closed for at least a term of years. Every year, preceding 
season, in a burst of wild enthusiasm, the newspapers invariably an- 
nounce the deer as being more plentiful than they have been for 
years, but nevertheless the writer's personal observations show a ter- 
rible decrease in the last five years. Even should the letter of the law 
be observed and no females killed, which sad to say is far from the 
actual case, yet a few years more will reduce the deer to that point 
where they will never permanently increase in their wild state, but 
can only be perpetuated in parks and reserves as are the bison of 
today. CHESTER P. COLLINS, 
Voltaire, California. 
At the last regular meeting of the Lorquin Natural History Club, 
held on Friday, January 5th, 1917, a motion was passed instructing 
the Secretary to draft a letter copies of which are to be forwarded 
to California legislators in an effort to have them pass laws favorable 
to the protection of rapidly diminishing wild life. This motion was 
aimed in particular at the protection of the Sage Grouse. "Conser- 
vation of the natural features of the world is coming to be of great 
interest and importance as population increases and threatens these 
features. We want to leave something of the natural for future 
generations to study," says F. Grinnell, Jr. 
COLLECTING NOTES FROM A MEMBER 
IN HILO, HAWAII 
Mr. Theodore Dranga writing from Hilo, Hawaii, tells of collect- 
ing at night as follows : 
''While living at the beach recently a bright moon and a low tide 
in the evening promised good opportunities for collecting, so taking 
an electric flashlight along, I went out. One of the first fiinds was a 
live clam, Venus purpura, the first live specimen that I ever saw. To 
a California collector a live clam does not mean much, but here there 
is a notable absence of large sand and mud bivalves and not many 
small ones, all of which are rare. A live specimen of Triton obscurus 
was also found and I might say that I was very lucky, as this species 
is very seldom taken alive. 
"The pretty Nerita polita was taken freely. It is almost impos- 
sible to find these during the day as they stay down among the rocks 
