Bird lore - Project Puffin

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
Edited by T. GILBERT PEARSON. Secretary
Address all correspondence, and send all remittances for dues and contributions, to
the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City.
WrLLiAM DuTCHER, President
Frederic A. Lucas, Acting President T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary
Theodore S. Palmer, First Vice President Jonathan Dwight, Jr., Treasurer
Samuel T. Cartbr, Jr., Attorney
Any person, club, school or company in sympathy with the objects of this Association may become
a member of it, and all are welcome.
Classes of Membership in the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild
Birds and Animals:
$5 annually pays for a Sustaining Membership
$100 paid at one time constitutes a Life Membership
$1,000 constitutes a person a Patron
$5,000 constitutes a person a Founder
$25,000 constitutes a person a Benefactor
Form of Bequest:—I do hereby give and bequeath to The National Association of Audubon
Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals (Incorporated), of the City of New York.
In the last issue of Bird-Lore were reproduced
some photographs of a ruined
White Ibis rookery, which Dr. Herbert R.
Mills stated had been destroyed by
"sportsmen" who had wantonly shot the
birds. Such raids on the bird-life of Florida
have been made frequently by northern
visitors to the state. A striking example
of this habit has just come to public notice.
In the February issue of Scribner's
Magazine, a writer, after referring to the
pleasures he enjoyed while catching
tarpon at Bocagrande, says:
"Birds were always flying around the
boat; Gulls, Man-o'-wars, Pelicans, and
when we weren't fishing we were potting
at them with a Winchester .22. The Big
Chief was a wizard with a rifle, and even
skimming Swallows were none too swift
or too small for his Deadeye Dick precision
of aim. After cutting down a sailing Mano'-war,
two hundred yards above the
water, and surely three hundred yards
away, he formed a Man-o'-war's Club; any
body who killed one flying was entitled to
membership."
All these birds are protected by the
laws of Florida and at least one of them
by the United States Migratory Bird Law.
There is no open season for any of them.
The man who wrote this is not a poor.
A CASE IN POINT
(13 2)
illiterate inhabitant of the southern
swamps, who killed the birds to sell their
feathers for a few dollars with which to
help feed his family; but is a successful
writer of novels and stories, many of
which you and I have bought and read
with pleasure. Incidentally, by our pur-
chase of his work, we have aided in
swelling his royalties, thus enabling him
to go to Bocagrande, and doubtless else-
where, where he might amuse himself from
time to time in the very delectable sport of
shooting harmless non-game birds. This
man is John Fox, Jr.
As a result of the work of this Asso-
ciation, the Pelican colonies in Charlotte
Harbor near Bocagrande have been made
Federal bird-reservations. While attempt-
ing to protect one of them, Columbus G.
McLeod, one of our wardens, had his head
chopped open and his body sunk in the
harbor by persons who did not approve
of his zeal. These birds—the wards of
the Government, the birds that the
Audubon Society's members have been
giving money to protect, and the birds for
which one good man has given up his
life— these birds afford targets for Mr.
John Fox Jr., and his friends; and