Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1901-09-06
PROTECTION OF OUR BIRDS.
Work Done by the American orni.
biologists Union, Supplemented by
the Audubon Societies.

biologists Union, Supplemented by
the Audubon Societies.
The report of the American Orni.
biologists union for the year 1900 is
OF interest as showing the organized
and systematic work done by the union
FOR the protection of our native birds
in all parts of the country. In this
work the Audubon societies cooperate,
and the work and interests of the
union and of the Audubon societies
are mutual. Audubon societies now
exist in % states of the Union, and
there are very few. people in any of
these states who do not know of the
societies and what they aim to do.
The report for the year 1900 is of
especial interest as showing what has
been done for the protection and fu-
ture increase of the almost eXter-
minated terms and gulls. At various
points on the Atlantic coast, from
Maine southwark, the breeding
grounds of these birds are protected,
and 1t is great qualification to see
That the birds are once more increas-
ing as the result of this work Several
states have passed laws for the strin-
gent protection of song and plumage
birds. In this respect no state in the
Union has taken more advanced
ground than Maryland. 1t was through
the operation of this law that whole
sale millinery dealers in Baltimore
were compelled to surrender thou
sands of the skins of plumage birds
illegally killed, and to go out of the
business of dealing in such goods, at
least for the present.
To what extent the work of destruc-
ton has been carried is shown by the
fact that during one season two or
three years ago wholesale millinery
dealers in the North sent cards or
letters to every postmaster in the coast
towns of the Southern states, quoting
the prices for the skins of plumage
birds, and asking the postmasters to
inform local hunters in regard to them.
The post Office department discovered
what was being done, and promptly
put an end to any such work by the
postmasters. Mrs. Florence Merriam
Bailey says that when in Texas in
the spring of 1900 she found one local
plumage hunter who boosted that in
1889 he shot SIC birds in five days, and
1923 in six to seven days.
The OrnithologistsI union and the
Audubon societies were active in Sc
curing the passage by Congress last
May of the Lacey bill, which supple
ments the game and bird laws of the
different states by forbidding the ship
ment of illegally killed birds from one
state to another, while birds coming
into state, even though killed legally
cannot be sold in that state if the
law there forbids the sale of such
birds.
This report is of local interest from
the fact that the Brattleboro Bird club
has recently changed its organization,
becoming an Audubon society, as else
where stated.
In this connection, it is also of inter-
est to note that measures are being
taken by the New England Botanical
club to circulate information which
will tend to reduce the danger of ex-
termination of our choicer wild flow
ers, like the arbutus, certain varieties
of ferns, ground pine, mountain laurel.
etc. In the vicinity of the large cities
these plants are so generally gathered
for sale and so ruthlessly torn up by
the roots that they are becoming prac-
tically extinct. The leaflets distribut-
ed by the club have the endorsement
of the Botanical club of Vermont.