Pees Oboes na uel BON *S:0:- Grek Tey 27 
Destruction of Lotus Beds 
In October last the Waukegan Daily Sun reported that the 
fad for decorating homes with gilded seed pods was endangering 
the propagation of the lotus flowers in the Grass Lake area in 
Lake County. Commercial interests in Chicago were gathering 
seed pods of the lotus at Grass Lake and carting them away in 
great motor trucks. A large force of men was employed in 
placing these pods in crates and many tons of these crates were 
hauled into Chicago. 
It was though by some that the seeds would fall out of the 
pods before the pods were gathered but an examination of pods 
on sale during the past winter months showed that most of the 
seeds were still in place. The Waukegan Sun makes the grave 
prediction that because of this onslaught the lotus beds will be 
greatly depleted. It states that many Lake County residents are 
aroused over the danger that menaces these beautiful natural 
flower beds, and are endeavoring to find what can be done to 
halt the practice. 
The Waukegan Sun, by the way, led the opposition in Lake 
‘County four years ago to the establishment of Forest Preserves 
and was influential in securing the defeat of the measure. The 
conservation program thus defeated specifically included Grass 
Lake and adjoining areas. 
Federal Licenses and Game Refuges 
We print with approval the following paragraphs from the 
latest Bulletin of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. 
Passage of the New-Anthony bill to provide for Federal 
licenses to hunt migratory birds and for the establishment of 
game refuges and public shooting-grounds for such _ birds 
would affect about 5,000,000 American sportsmen, the Bureau 
of Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, 
estimates. The bill has been favorably reported by the Senate 
committee on public lands and surveys. In the House the bill 
is in the committee on agriculture. 
The bill provides that each hunter of migratory birds shall 
obtain a Federal license, at a cost of $1 for the season, the 
licenses to be issued at any post office in the United States. 
Out of the proceeds not less than 45 per cent is to be spent by 
the Government, through a proposed Migratory Bird Refuge 
Commission, in buying or renting land suitable for the estab- 
lishment of migratory game bird refuges which would serve as 
breeding and feeding places for birds during the period of their 
flight north, or the closed season, and as public shooting-grounds 
during the open season. An additional 45 per cent will be used 
‘for the enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the 
Lacey Act, and the remaining 10 per cent for expenses in 
issuing licenses and other administrative expenses. 
