8 
HISTORY AND WORK OF THE 
but another was sent which was never answered. The Au- 
dubon Society thereupon gave up all hope of assistance from 
tlie game warden or his office. A moment’s thought would 
convince one of the weakness of this plan when one notes 
that a day or more is taken in forwarding a communication 
from Detroit to Sault Ste. iNlarie, and the same time in return- 
ing, and that offenders have to be taken with the game on 
the person or a conviction is next to impossible, if not quite 
impossible, and from two to three days gives them all the 
time they need to kill and dispose of their plunder. If the 
game warden were absent nothing could be done apparently 
until his return. 
Consequently the officers turned to the prosecuting attor- 
ney for Wayne County, and wrote him a letter explaining the 
situation, and calling attention to the fact that the law of 
1903 specified the prosecuting attorney of the various coun- 
ties as empowered to enforce the game act. "Sir. Hunt never 
replied. After telephoning his office the secretary became 
convinced that it was hopeless to do anything in that direc- 
tion, the excuse being that it was the game warden’s duty to 
enforce the game act. About this time complaints were 
made that a colony of the great blue heron near Clarkston, 
Mich., was being destroyed. The secretary visited the col- 
ony and found that the old birds were being shot during the 
nesting season, simply because the boys and young men 
found them easy to hit. The old birds were lying on the 
ground in every direction, and the young were starving in 
their nests. It was the story of the snowy heron over again, 
except that the circumstances were changed, the money in 
the aigrette being the end in the first case, while this colony 
of great blue herons was being destroyed simply for the 
“fun” of destroying, as they are useless for food, commit no 
damage and are useful as scavengers. 
The Audubon Society officers thought that it might be 
possible to interest the game warden in this case, and an 
appeal was made to the deputy at Detroit. The reply to this 
complaint was the suggestion that the writer go to Pontiac 
and prosecute the ofifenders, as a game warden was not nec- 
essary for the law allowed any citizen to prosecute. This is 
true, and all a complainant needs is money to stand the expense 
