New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-09-06
SAYING JERSEYS BIRDS.
La Rue Holmes League to Purchase
Land for Reservation.
BY NJ. w. Mount.

New Jersey is to have bird reservation for
the remnant of her wild BIRDS which have been
almost eXti;patcd by the pot and plume hunter
and the needless sportsman. The La Rue
Holmes League as it is commonly called, has
raised sufficient money to purchase large tract
of marsh land in New Jersey and negotiations
are under way looking to its acquisition by the
league simultaneously the Audubon Society is
arranging for the purchase of an island in the
Connecticut River for the same purpose. The
work of the league is being carried on by Mrs,
G. X Holmes of Summit, n. J., a memorial
for her son, young naturalist who began this
labor of love, and whose name members of the
league conferred upon the association.
Our aim is not nature study, but nature pro-
lection said Mrs Holmes, she led the way
into her sons bird thcket and wild flower res
ervation, which creeps up to the very doorstep
of her home, every window of which looks out
into the woodland for Mrs Holmes is convert
ing her Summit estate into untrammelled forest
growth, where botanical students may study at
will every form of wild growth common TO New
Jersey.
There was a nearer futter of wings, glimpse
of twigs swaying beneath feathered visitors
and bird called to Mrs. Holmes. She answered
not in mimicry of bird language, but in her
own and a lively conversation enSued
bringing a woodland road viii n assembled
from Pine Grove avenue, every wild flower Of
the month swung jcyously, secure in its free
dom to blossom and shed seed for greater pro-
fusion in seasons to come.
Many of the blooms-the false dragon head
for example-although once so common, have be
because of those destructive agencies
which have heen at work among the species
for years.
'"They have not shrunk away from fear of man
or been torn from their environment tbrGrIob
spirit of resentment against nature said Mrs
Holmes. They have simply persisted at the
hands of their friends, The more rare the flower
the more eagerly it is sought for and appropri-
ated'
The league by means of lectures and leaflets
and the individual influence of its members IS
teaching Needless flower lovers, big and little,
not to gather the last fair blossom upon a stem
take to cassroOms more than single speci-
men of each flower. The unselfish person who
enjoys a blossom and leaves it to cast its seed
for richer Towering in the future best loves the
yd blooms and his fellow man.
Farmers, road makers and home builders are
abe natural enemy of wild flowers, but even
these do work more havoc than is wrought
by friends whose passion seems to he to possess
at the expense Of its existence-every blossom
that pleases the eye with as little thought to
barren future as the average lumberman gives
to the country he denudes of its forests
The task of saving the birds and flowers Of
our land for a future generation enjoy IS
being largely intrusted to the energies of the
coming generation. More than 1900 of the 500
members OF the La Rue Holmes League are
children, who with adult members make up the
twenty-five league chapters between Morristown
and Orange Young is this organization, leg
slators have found it powerful in formulating
Qnd backing measures for the protection of
birds. in which work the efforts of the Audubon
Society alone were insufficient in New Jersey.