Bird Breeding on the Louisiana Coast. 
When, in the year 1904, President Roosevelt 
dedicated Breton Reservation, comprising seven 
islands on the coast of Louisiana, and the Federal 
Government went into the bird breeding busi¬ 
ness, it was not foreseen the work would assume 
its present magnitude. Subsequently the Audu¬ 
bon Society of Louisiana rented seventeen con¬ 
tiguous islands, comprising about 3,000 acres 
from the Lake Borgne Levee Board, and now- 
the islands comprised in this practically one ex¬ 
periment, situated in an area of 700 square miles 
of land and water, contain probably the largest 
bird breeding area to be found anywhere in the 
world. 
To visit these islands, one must take the L. 
& N. R. R. train from New Orleans, fiftA^-seven 
miles to Pass Christian, Miss., and then, getting 
into a small boat, sail due south. The first 
island is fqund -about twenty miles out and the 
remainder are strung along the way for eighty 
miles further. Mostly they are low lying, of a 
sandy formation, covered with a number of 
species of tenacious grass. Where the grasses 
grow high, the laughing gulls and Louisiana 
herons make their nests of twigs. Where shells 
abound, royal, Iforster's, Cabot and Caspian terns 
and black skimmers scoop out slight depress_- 
ions in which to lay their spotted and mottled 
eggs. 
Most of the birds nest in June, but the black 
skimmers lay their eggs in July. When the 
almost naked young of this species come forth, 
it would seem as though the sun’s heat of 130 
degrees would kill them, but nature knows its 
own. The reason why the birds nest so late is 
probably to escape -the spring equinoctial storms, 
and, by the time the summer hurricanes come, in 
the month of August, the young are able to fly; 
the consequences are, nesting takes place between 
two very serious weather crises. 
After the plans for this bird breeding experi¬ 
ment were formulated, the National Committee 
of Audubon Societies, of which William Dutcher 
of New York is president, became interested, 
and now through the efforts of these united 
agencies, successful results are achieved by the 
simple precautionary measure of hiring wardens 
to watch the islands to prevent trespass. These 
wardens must be good seamen and absolutely 
fearless. They meet' nature in her fiercest aspect 
and mankind of the most dangerous character. 
They literally take their lives in their hands at 
all seasons. 
In the latter part of June of the present year, 
s. 
with our Chief Warden Captain William 
Sprinkle, master of the six ton schooner Sea 
Bird, I sailed from Pass Christian on a tour of 
inspection. After leaving the mainland, one is 
impressed by the utter loneliness and dreariness 
of these outer sentinels, to ward off the fury of 
the hurricanes, which rush in from the tropical 
seas. At that season of the year not a sail is 
sighted. In years gone by the bird trappers and 
the egg stealers risked the dangers of the gulf to 
carry on their nefarious business, but now that a 
strict watch is kept, the place is deserted, 
all th.e inner islands, to our regret, we found 
they were no longer confined to the soil. No 
sooner did we land on an island than the whole 
mob of fathers and mothers and young ones 
launched off into the air, and it became literally 
crowded with flashing white wings, while the 
tremulous high hysterical ‘‘ha-ha-has” of the 
laughing gulls and the guttural “tearrrs” of the 
terns made it impossible for us to hear each 
other talk. 
When we reached Battledore Island we were 
fortunate enough to find a few laughing gulls 
J 
LITTLE DEAD MAN S ISLAND, A FAVORITE BREEDING SPOT FOR TERNS AND GULLS. 
shunned, in fact, by all, and the weariness of 
being absolutely alone becomes depressing. 
We carefully inspected the various islands as 
we went out, and found that, at the lowest esti¬ 
mate, all of S,ooo birds were raised on each one 
of fifteen of our islands, while on the outer¬ 
most, one belonging to the Federal Government, 
25,000 were raised, making a total of 100,000 
birds, which, from practically nothing two years 
ago, shows what -nature can do if permitted to 
carry out her wise purpose. 
The trip had been planned so that I would 
have the opportunity of seeing the young chicks, 
but the season had been so propitious, that on 
BATTLEDORE ISLAND, ON WHICH TEN THOUSAND BIRDS WERE RAISED. 
still nesting. One of the accompanying illustra¬ 
tions shows Such a nest, with two recently 
hatched birds and one egg just “pipped.” 
In years past, this island suffered more than 
any other from the depredations of egg thieves, 
their method of procedure being particularly 
atrocious. Say, for instance, a crew decided they 
would get a boat load of eggs; they would sail 
for the island and land thereon about 2 o’clock 
in the afternoon. The whole crew would go 
ashore, and, with clubs, would break every egg 
on the island, no matter if there were 10,000 
already laid. They would then sail away, to re¬ 
turn the next morning to gather up a load of 
eggs consisting of 500 to 600 dozens, and, bring¬ 
ing them to market, would sell them at fifteen 
cents a dozen, guaranteeing them as strictly 
fresh, which, of course, they were. Our society 
was determined to break up this business, so 
we put a warden on the island, with a good rifle 
and told him to stay right there day and night 
for ten weeks. It was, therefore, with some 
curiosity that I landed on the island, but k glance 
sufficed to show that the lonely vigil of our men 
on that little speck of land, on the broad waters 
of the gulf, had been productive of grand re¬ 
sults. Fully 10,000 birds had been hatched out, 
and, as we walked over the island and raised 
great swirling clouds of laughing gulls and 
Forster’s terns, to be succeeded in other parts of 
the island by clouds equally dense of black skim¬ 
mers, with their plaintive piping cries, -I felt 
grateful that it was possible to carry on such a 
wonderfully beautiful work. Instead of the dole¬ 
ful and piteous cries which had assailed my ears 
when I first visited this island some two' years 
ago the birds were actually becoming fearless, 
and instead of the sickening slaughter, to supply 
the wholesale millinery trade with hundreds of 
thousands of wings with which to bedeck the 
hats of foolish women and girls, the living birds 
