

FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 

Dr WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 

Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 


THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor 
recreation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
MOVE TO RESTORE DRAINED LAND 
UCK hunters in California take a toll of not 
D less than 1,000,000 ducks during each open 
season What is the source of supply of the 
hordes of waterfowl that annually winter in Cali- 
fornia and that make such a harvest possible? As 
everyone knows, most of the ducks killed are 
reared in the marsh areas of the north. With 
continual drainage of marsh areas in California, 
the supply is more and more dependent upon 
winter visitants from the north. It would be com- 
mon sense to rear as many birds within our own 
state as possible so as to assure a continuous 
supply. 
However, instead of creating breeding grounds, 
we are continually destroying them. The State’s 
largest and finest breeding grounds were destroyed 
a few years ago on the pretense of the acquisition 
of valuable agricultural lands. Lower Klamath 
Lake in the northeastern corner of the state was 
drained with the consequent destruction of age- 
long breeding grounds of hundrds of thousands of 
ducks and geese. The soil having proved to be 
strongly alkali, only an exceedingly small portion 
of the land is being cultivated. By returning this 
area to its natural condition, extensive natural 
breeding grounds for waterfowl could be secured 
for California. The reflooding of the lake is 
possible and to make it an assured thing an 
awakened public sentiment to the needs of the 
waterfowl is necessary. The California Fish and 
Game Commission is heading a campaign for the 
re-establishment of the Lower Klamath Lake 
breeding grounds for waterfowl. 
WHAT BECOMES OF ELEPHANT SKELE- 
TONS? 
OME little time ago, says the Shooting Times 
S and British Sportsman, there was a good deal 
of correspondence in the general Press in 
regard to what became of the bodies or rather 
skeletons, of dead elephants in the wilds. A friend 
sends us a cutting from an Irish paper from which 
the following is an extract: “Elephants have their 
own code of customs, and one of these is that no 
member of the herd must die among his fellows. 
When an old elephant feels that his course is run, 
he separates himself from the herd and makes for 
its graveyard—for each herd has a burial ground 
of its own. This is always a swampy tract of land 
overgrown with trees and rank vegetation. Here 
he dies, and his great body buries itself by its own 
huge weight in the soft soil. Many of these ele- 
phant graveyards are known to the African 
natives, who make journeys to them each year for 
the purpose of digging out the ivory tusks.” Per- 
haps some one of our big game hunters will com- 
ment on the accuracy of this statement. 
COLLIE INTELLIGENCE 
CONTRIBUTOR sends what purports to be 
A a fresh instance of the sagacity of the collie 
dog. He and a brother often had occasion 
to go out in the early evenings to look after some 
lots of young cattle situated in different parks. 
The one starts at one end of the farm and the other 
at the other extremity; and, when about to sepa- 
rate for their respective sections, one of them will 
say casually: “You had better take the dog to- 
night.” Nero (this is the canine’s name) may be 
romping about, seemingly oblivious to all earthly 
affairs but his own amusement, but his ears are 
quick to catch any reference to himself. As soon 
as the fateful words are uttered he looks sharply 
to see the dirction in which the man addressed is 
about to go, and he instantly bounds forward to 
keep him company. For testing purposes the little 
phrase may be sandwiched in between similar 
suggestions in the coures of an ordinary conver- 
sation, and it may be spoken in the most natural 
tone. The effect, however, is never lost on the 
collie, and he never fails to avail himself of the 
hint thus stealthily given as to his sphere of work. 
“Tt is often stated,” adds the writer, “that the 
shepherd’s dog almost always exhibits a propen- 
sity to hunt rabbits and hares, to the neglect and 
detriment of his legitimate duties. The fact is,” 
our friend continues, “that the working collie 
seldom indulges in such pranks, as he is early 
taught that sheep and not ground game are his 
proper charge.” 
RED SQUIRREL CLASSED WITH CROW 
T is hard to believe that the handsome, agile, 
| graceful red squirrel which adds such a pic- 
turesque note to our lawns and parks is an 
inveterate destroyer of the eggs and young of use- 
ful birds ard spends much of his time in searching 
out nests among the trees. Such, however, are his 
habits and naturalists and sportsmen class him as 
one of the most vicious of all game destroying 
animals. In many places war has been declared 
on him by sportsmen who are particularly inter- 
ested in ridding their neighborhood of “vermin,” 
as the birds and animals are called which prey on 
useful species. A great mass of evidence has been 
collected against the red squirrel showing that his 
depredations are such as to make it necessary to 
keep down his number if insectivorous birds are 
to be allowed to flourish and help out in their 
useful work. 
The late John Burroughs wrote of the red 
squirrel: 
“Nearly all the birds look upon it as their 
enemy and attack and annoy it when it appears 
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