BY THE WA YSIDE 
8 2 
peared to be a happy and contented lot. 
A few years later a railway was con¬ 
structed down the coast, and with the 
advent of the railway, came settlers and 
tourists, and among them the hunter 
and a class of tourist who appeared to 
be possesssd with the desire to shoot 
every bird seen. This class of visitors 
found in the pelicans and gulls an easy 
mark for their guns, as the birds were 
verv tame, and as a result every succeed- 
ing year saw their number diminishing 
until the year 1907, when but a remnant 
of the original number of pelicans and 
cm 11s were left. With a view of devis- 
o 
ing some method for protecting and 
saving the.remaining birds from utter 
extinction, in December 1907 I laid the 
matter before Mr. Wm. Dutcher, presi¬ 
dent of National Association of Audu¬ 
bon Societies in New York. Maps were 
made of the Inlet and locality with de¬ 
scriptions of the adjacent country and 
the birds inhabiting it, and forwarded 
to Washington where they were sub¬ 
mitted to the Department of Agriculture 
for approval as a United States Reser¬ 
vation. On February 24, 1908, Presi¬ 
dent Roosevelt affixed his signature to 
the document which made Mosquito 
Inlet Reservation a fact. A warden 
was then appointed in Capt. B. J. 
Pacetti, who resides close to the Light 
House and near the center of the Reser¬ 
vation. The territory covered is about 
thirteen miles in length and extends 
from Port Orange on the north to Hawks 
Pa l rk on the south, including the Hali¬ 
fax and Hillsborough Rivers, shores and 
marsh lands, overflowed by tide waters 
in these rivers. A little over a year has 
elapsed since the creation of this Reser¬ 
vation and the increase in bird life 
within its confines is very apparent in 
the colonies of pelicans, gulls and terns 
about the Inlet. While the great and 
little blue heron, gannets and wood ibis 
are increasing in number and show less 
fear than formerly. 
The value of these Government Bird 
Reservations has been clearly demon- 
strated to thousands of people, and in 
Mosquito Inlet Reservation, a most 
picturesque feature of Florida, so much 
admired by tourists, saved from extinc- 
tion. 
— Geo. N. Chamberlin. 
Daytona, Fla., March 22, 1909. 
A Bird Battle. 
When I was in Berlin last spring a 
favorite resort with me was the Zoolog¬ 
ical Garden. It was a delectable home 
for animals of every kind, if a home 
can be delectable to them which is first 
of all a prison. It was in one corner of 
the magnificent Tiergarten, the finest 
park by all odds, I know in Europe. It 
was shaded by grand, old forest trees, 
which had stood for centuries and grown 
stout of body, and sturdy of limb, for 
nobody knows how many hundred years. 
They were^a delight in themselves, but 
then, everything else was a delight in 
that splendidly planned and perfectly 
ordered garden. A broad, paved walk 
ran entirely around the grounds, and in 
every direction narrower paths led from 
it to the separate dwellings of the feath¬ 
ered and furred and scaly creatures 
abiding there. 
These separate dwellings were built 
with careful reference to the tastes and 
habits of the species for which they were 
intended and were left spotlessly trim 
and clean. There was plenty of room 
outdoors and in for every tenant ; there 
was shelter from sun and storm, pure 
water for bathing and drinking, and an 
abundance of food. They had only to 
eat and drink and be happy, and as far 
as 1 observed they were all in a state of 
entire content,—all save the birds; 
nearly everv one of these, I feel sure, 
had a wild longing to be tree. 
Beside the trees and the walksand the 
