48 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
The Mary DntcLer Memorial Fund. 
During the absence of Mr. William 
Dutcher in Europe to attend the Fifth 
International Ornithological Congress, a 
committee was organized with Mr. 
W. W. Grant, of New York, as chair¬ 
man, to consider some means of show¬ 
ing in a substantial manner esteem and 
appreciation of Mr. Dutcher’s unremit¬ 
ting work for more than a quarter of a 
century on behalf of bird protection. 
The testimonial decided on was a fund 
to be known as the Mary Dutcher Me¬ 
morial Fund, in honor of Mr. Dutcher s 
daughter, who, previous to her death, 
had been deeply interested in his work. 
On July 14 an informal luncheon was 
tendered Mr. Dutcher at the City Lunch 
Club in New York, at which there were 
present several officers of the National 
Association of Audubon Societies, the 
American Museum of Natural History, 
the Camp-Fire Club of America, the 
New York Zoological Society, and the 
members of the committee in charge of 
the testimonial. The fund, amounting 
already to nearly $7,000, was presented 
to Mr. Dutcher, who was completely 
surprised and greatly appreciative of 
both the recognition of his services and 
the form in which it was expressed. 
Imprisonment for Blinding Birds. 
A Camberwell (England) man, who 
according to his own confession had 
been in the business for twenty years, 
has been sent to prison for three months 
for blinding chaffinches to make them 
sing more sweetly. An ordinary wild 
chaffinch is worth twopence or three¬ 
pence, but when it has been blinded its 
value is increased to two shillings, as 
the bird, being thus made oblivious to 
its surroundings, will devote the whole 
of its attention to singing. The blind- 
tag is done by inserting an ordinary 
needle—not red hot, as is generally 
thought—into the eye, paralyzing the 
optic nerve. The eyes of a bird thus 
blinded do not lose any of their bright¬ 
ness. 
Bird Poaching on Layson Island. 
. Word was recently received of the ar¬ 
rival of another Japanese vessel at Lay- 
san Island, which, in ignorance of the 
arrest of the Japanese left on the island 
and the seizure of the plumage they 
had secured, was sent to take a cargo of 
plumage and leave another set of men 
on the island. Instructions were at 
once cabled to the revenue cutter Thetis , 
which did the patrol work last January, 
and which was lying at Honolulu, or¬ 
dering immediate departure for Laysan 
to protect the birds. It is too early yet 
to receive information of the result of 
this second visit of the cutter. 
Result 'of Destruction of Rooks in Ireland. 
In the county of Aberdeenshire, Ire¬ 
land, the farmers have killed many 
rooks, and, as a consequence, the leather- 
jacket grub, which is eaten by rooks* 
has ravaged whole fields of oats. 
A bird came down the walk, 
He didn’t know I saw; 
He bit an angleworm in halves, 
And ate the fellow, raw. 
And then he drank a dew 
From a convenient grass, 
And then hopped sidewise to the wall 
To let a beetle pass. 
—Emily Dickinson. 
