Bird lore - Project Puffin

Scribner's Magazine, doubtless greatly
pleased at the privilege of being allowed
to publish an article from the pen of a
gentleman so distinguished, kind and
altruistic, has taken these boasting
sentences and printed them, regardless of
the fact that the magazine will go into
thousands of homes to be read by young
men who may later go tarpon-fishing in the
limpid waters about Bocagrande, and
who might be inspired to follow the example
of the noble deeds of this celebrated
novelist.
We are glad to rci)ro(luce here an ()|)en
letter written to him b_\' Doctor William
F. Blackman, President of the Florida
State Audubon Society.
^'Dear Sir: As a tarpon fisherman, holding
the record in a recent year for the largest
fish taken in the state, I was much
interested in your article in the February
Issue of Scribner's Magazine, on 'Tarpon
Fishing at Bocagrande.' But when you
told your readers that you and your companions
beguiled your leisure, on this occasion,
by 'potting with a Winchester .22'
at the Gulls. Man-o'-wars, Pelicans, and
The Audubon Societies 133
skimming Swallows which surrounded your
boat, you surprised and pained and disgusted
me beyond words.
"You doubtless knew that all these birds
are protected by the laws of Florida, and
some of them by the Federal laws also; your
action was deliberately criminal; it was also
unspeakably puerile, wanton, cruel, and
vulgar.
"The citizens of Florida welcome tourists
from other states; we are happy to share
our excellent fishing and shooting with them
within legal and decent limits, which, I am
glad to say, the great majority of those who
sojourn among us carefully and cheerfully
observe; but we do not propose to allow
our plumage and insectivorous birds to be
slaughtered to provide fun for thoughtless
and reckless gunners whether residents or
visitors.
"You are too foxy to say whether you
yourself succeeded in killing any of these
birds, but I hereby give you notice that if
\'ou ever again set foot on our soil, and lam
apprised of the fact, I shall see that you
have an opportunity to tell your story in
the courts. If proof can be had of your
personal guilt,- you will be punished to the
full limit of the law. in both the state and
federal jurisdictions, for a misdemeanor so
unsporlmanlike and inexcusable."
A FEEDING-SHELF FOR BIRDS ERECTED BY JUDGE HARRY L. CRESWELL,
GRAND RAPIDS MICHIGAN