2 BULLETIN 292, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
services in cleaning up such material are not to be regarded lightly. 
It will surprise many to learn that certain gulls render important in- 
land service, especially to agriculture. At least one species, the Cali- 
fornia gull, is extremely fond of field mice, and during an out- 
break of that pest in Nevada in 1907-8 hundreds of gulls assembled 
in and near the devastated alfalfa fields and fed entirely on mice, 
thus lending the farmers material aid in their warfare against the 
pestiferous little rodents. The skua also feeds on mice and lemmings. 
Several species of gulls render valuable service to agriculture by 
destroying insects also, and in spring hundreds of Franklin's gulls 
in Wisconsin and the Dakotas follow the plowman to pick up the 
insect larva? uncovered by the share. 
That at least one community has not been unmindful of the sub- 
stantial debt it owes the gull is attested in Salt Lake City, where 
stands a monument surmounted by a bronze figure of two gulls, 
erected by the people of that city "in grateful remembrance" of the 
signal service rendered by these birds at a critical time in the his- 
tory of the community. For three consecutive years — 1848 to 1850 — 
black crickets by millions threatened to ruin the crops upon which 
depended the very lives of the settlers. Large flocks of California 
gulls came to the rescue and devoured vast numbers of the destruc- 
tive insects, until the fields were entirely freed from them. It is no 
wonder that the sentiment of the people of Utah as reflected through 
their laws affords gulls the fullest protection. It would be well if such 
sentiment prevailed elsewhere throughout the United States. How- 
ever, within the last few years much progress has been made in 
protecting these most beautiful dwellers of coasts and marshes. 
BIRD REFUGES. 
On March 14, 1903, President Roosevelt issued an Executive order 
making Pelican Island, Fla., a bird reservation — the first established 
in the United States. To-day there are 68 bird reservations, vary- 
ing in size from a few acres to many hundred square miles. Some 
27 of these, situated on the seacoast or on islands in the Great Lakes, 
are resorted to by gulls during the breeding season, and here these 
birds find safety from human molestation, while local wardens have 
endeavored to reduce their native wild enemies to a minimum. The 
27 national bird reservations frequented by gulls are: Breton Island, 
Tern Islands, East Timbalier Island, and Shell Keys, La.; Passage 
Key and Matlacha Pass, Fla.; Huron and Siskiwit Islands, Mich.; 
Lake Malheur, Klamath Lake, and Three Arch Rocks, Oreg. ; Flat- 
tery Rocks, Quillayute Needles, and Copalis Rock, Wash.; Chase 
Lake, N. Dak. ; Clear Lake and the Farallon Islands, Cal. ; Green Bay, 
Wis. ; and nine reservations in Alaska. 
