Bird Reservations 
BY 
Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson 
Secretary , National Association of Audubon Societies 
P RESENT operations in the United States, in the line of bird- 
reservations, grew out of the distinct need of preserving certain 
classes of birds from becoming extinct. We recognize in North 
America 1,200 varieties of wild birds. The birds that we may distinctly 
call farm-land birds, such as the native sparrows, the warblers, wrens, 
orioles, and many other common insectivorous birds, have, despite 
the contrary claims of calamity howlers, enormously increased in 
America since the advent of white man. There has, however, been 
a decrease in the case of certain forest birds. In the open land there 
have been more plants, more insect-life, more grass and weed seeds, 
more berry-producing plants, that spring up along the fences and 
elsewhere to afford an abundant food-supply. As a result birds of 
that class have increased and we are in no danger of losing that part 
of our bird-population. As a result of the increased number of 
insects it is desirable, however, to have an increase of many species 
of birds, and a great deal has been done, through a general awakening 
of public interest to the use of feeding devices, nesting boxes, and 
keeping down the enemies of the birds, to encourage their propa- 
gation. 
It is chiefly the birds that could be commercialized, either for 
their flesh, or their feathers, that have suffered great diminution 
in numbers in North America as a result of man’s activities. An 
important effort to preserve this class of birds is now being carried 
on in the United States by the establishment of bird-reservations. 
Reservation work began in 1902, under the National Association 
of Audubon Societies for the study and protection of wild birds and 
animals. This is the best known and most liberally financed bird- 
protective organization in the world, and we have been in active 
operation since 1902. A bill making it a misdemeanor to kill a 
bird destructive to insects or noxious weed-seeds was pushed by the 
Audubon workers, and has now been enacted in all of the states except 
Maryland and six or seven of the Rocky Mountain states. 
