Jan. 23, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
135 
A Wildfowl Paradise. 
Last June I made an inspection of the great 
bird colonies on the protected islands off the 
coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, comprised 
in the Breton Island and Audubon Reservations. 
Only five years ago the birds had been almost 
exterminated by the agents of the milliners. 
Then the Government and the Audubon Socie¬ 
ties took things in hand, and now, after only 
five years of protection, I found water birds 
breeding by the scores of thousands in won¬ 
derful, spectacular colonies—the laughing gull, 
black skimmer, royal, Cabot’s and Forster’s 
terns, brown pelican, man-o’-war bird and sev¬ 
eral kinds of herons, including the little snowy 
heron or egret. 
In winter and during the fall and spring- 
migrations there are countless thousands of 
ducks, geese, shore birds and many others. The 
islands extend in irregular groups from the 
mouth of the Mississippi River north and east 
to that part of the gulf coast where Louisiana 
and Mississippi adjoin. The waters all about 
teem with bird life. 
All these islands are low, flat, treeless areas 
of marsh or sand. There is one very large 
island, however, which practically belongs to this 
group, though not yet to the reservation, which 
is of an entirely different character—Cat Island, 
Mississippi—which can be located on most maps. 
From the main shore at Pass Christian, Miss., 
I could see in the dim distance, some six miles 
out to sea, the tall pine timber of this island. 
It is a beautiful, diversified tract of country, 
containing some 3,000 acres, shaped somewhat 
like the letter T, being six miles long and a mile 
wide in its main area, five miles the other way, 
with thirty miles of shore line. On it are found 
almost every variety of conditions — timber, 
arable tracts, fresh water ponds, marsh, fine sea 
beach, dunes, flats, ideal feeding ground for 
about every type of bird. It is in fact a natural 
bird paradise, teeming with varied life, all of 
those mentioned above, with land birds as well, 
and naturally adapted to quail, turkey and vari¬ 
ous upland game, except as it has been shot off. 
So famous a resort for bird life is it that it 
has become the great shooting ground of the 
market hunters. All the other habitable islands 
on the gulf coast have been appropriated and 
occupied, most, if not all, by the Government. 
The next one to this. Ship Island, is a Federal 
station. All these islands are right in the line 
of the spring migration of the shore birds. 
Among others, the celebrated golden plover 
passes through here by thousands. The slaugh¬ 
ter, which goes on of these and other shore 
birds and wildfowl from fall to spring, is “some¬ 
thing awful’’ to quote the language of Frank 
M. Miller, the president of the fish and game 
commission of Louisiana and of the Louisiana 
Audubon Society. “If this butchery could be 
stopped,’’ he added, “and these thousands get 
past Cat Island, most of them would safely reach 
their breeding grounds, and the increase of shore 
birds in fall along the Atlantic coast would soon 
become notable.’’ 
It was Mr. Miller who took the initial steps 
in having these reservations created and who 
BLACK SKIMMERS AT GRAND COCHERE KEY. 
Photographed by H. K. Job. 
first called my attention to the conditions on 
Cat Island. Sitting with me in his home in New 
Orleans, he told me about its needs and possi¬ 
bilities. “If the Audubon Society,” said he, 
“could only control and protect it, it would soon 
become one of the show places of America for 
wild bird life. Even aside from this it was of 
great financial value, owing to the thousands of 
dollars’ worth of splendid tall pine timber which 
grew upon it and its extensive and valuable 
landlocked natural oyster beds. Indeed, a local 
oyster company has just offered to lease these 
beds from the owners, build a house for a keeper 
to protect them, and plant oysters on a large 
scale, thus showing it to have business value.” 
It came about, soon after my visit, that Dr. 
T. E. B. Pope, the Government oyster expert, 
connected with the National Bureau of Fisheries, 
was in New Orleans, and Mr. Miller secured 
permission for him to make a survey of this 
oyster bottom, which he did, and issued a Gov¬ 
ernment report. He found that there were one 
thousand acres of first-class oyster grounds 
which were capable, according to the oyster 
commissioners and leading oyster dealers, of 
producing an immense yield of oysters if prop¬ 
erly managed. Indeed, their accounts sounded 
so roseate as to seem visionary. “Why,” said 
Mr. Miller to me, “if the National Association 
of Audubon Societies could only own and de¬ 
velop this property, it would finance all their 
work on the southern coast.” 
Upon my return home I entered into consul¬ 
tation with prominent sportsmen and bird lovers 
who all cordially approved of some plan to ac¬ 
quire Cat Island. Meanwhile I was instituting 
the most careful inquiries about the property 
which was just being offered for sale, as the 
present owners were unable to undertake its 
proper development. Originally it was an old 
Spanish grant, but the title has been declared 
valid by the United States District Attorney and 
by the Attorney-General of Mississippi. It ap¬ 
peared also that a squatter had been living at 
one end of the island for some time without 
valid claim and would be ejected if the island 
were purchased. 
In course of further consultations, the general 
plan was evolved of forming some sort of a club 
or stock company of nature lovers or sportsmen 
to put up the money for the purchase of this 
splendid 3,000-acre island at the price of $15,000, 
and in addition from five to ten thousand more, 
this last to be used as working capital to build 
a club house, hire and maintain a resident keeper, 
pay necessary expenses, and to plant the oyster 
beds which latter could be expected to bring in 
sufficient revenue after they began to yield, to 
pay all expenses, and make considerable, per¬ 
haps large, returns on the investment. Another 
part of the plan was to stock the island with 
quail, wild turkey or other upland game, per¬ 
haps raising wild ducks in semi-captivity, allow¬ 
ing, if thought desirable, a properly regulated 
hunting in the fall—say in November and De¬ 
cember—and otherwise protecting the birds which 
resorted to it. To have a great diversified tim¬ 
bered island, occupied by upland game, breed¬ 
ing sea bird colonies, rookeries of herons and 
egrets, hosts of migrant shore birds, swarms of 
ducks, geese and other waterfowl, as well as 
various land birds, all unsuspicious through pro¬ 
tection ; ducks, for example, never shot at in 
certain bayous where they were regularly fed, 
and should learn to come—as in the San Fran¬ 
cisco parks—and eat out of people’s hands, 
would be an enterprise of national importance 
and influence. The adjoining waters furnish 
some of the finest tarpon fishing in the coun¬ 
try and redfish, white trout, Spanish mackerel. 
