Chapter 10

BIRD RESERVATIONS

The creation of reservations where wild birds can be protected at all times is a modern idea, brought prominently to public attention by the efforts of the Audubon Society. The first interest that the United States Government manifested in the subject was about thirteen years ago. On May 29, 1901, the legislature of Florida was induced to enact a statute making it a misdemeanour to kill any non-game birds of the State with the exception of the Crow and a few other species regarded by the lawmakers as being injurious to man's interests.

First Federal Bird Reservation--Shortly afterward the Audubon Society friends employed a man to protect from the raids of tourists and feather hunters a {191} large colony of Brown Pelicans that used for nesting purposes a small, muddy, mangrove-covered island in Indian River on the Atlantic Coast. Soon murmurings began to be heard. "Pelicans eat fish and should not be protected," declared one Floridan. "We need Pelican quills to sell to the feather dealers," chimed in another with a keen eye to the main chance. There was talk of repealing the law at the next session of the legislature, and the hearts of the Audubon workers were troubled. At first they thought of buying the island, so as to be in a position to protect its feathered inhabitants by preventing trespass. However, it proved to be unsurveyed Government land, and the idea was suggested of getting the Government to make a reservation for the protection of the birds. The matter was submitted to President Roosevelt, who no sooner ascertained the facts that the land was not suited for agricultural purposes, and that the Audubon Society would guard it, than with characteristic directness he issued the following remarkable edict: "It is hereby ordered that Pelican {192} Island in Indian River is reserved and set apart for the use of the Department of Agriculture as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds."

The gist of this order, bearing the authorization of the Secretary of Agriculture, was quickly painted on a large sign, and placed on the island, where all who sailed near might read. Imagine the chagrin of the Audubon workers upon learning from their warden that when the Pelicans returned that season to occupy the island as before, they took one look at this declaration of the President and immediately departed, one and all, to a neighbouring island entirely outside of the reservation! Signs less alarming in size were substituted, and the Pelicans, their feelings appeased, condescended to return, and have since dwelt peacefully under the protecting care of the Government.

_Congressional Sanction._--In view of the fact that some persons contended that the President had over-stepped his authority in making a bird reservation, a law was drafted, and passed by Congress, specifically {193} giving protection to birds on lands set apart as National bird reservations. The legal difficulties thus removed, the way lay open for the creation of other bird reservations, and the Audubon Society seized the opportunity. Explorations were started to locate other Government territories containing important colonies of water birds. This work was quickly extended over many parts of the United States. Hunters of eggs and plumes were busy plying their trades wherever birds were known to assemble in great numbers, and the work had to be hurried if the birds were to be saved.

Mr. Frank M. Miller, of New Orleans, reported a case in which five thousand eggs had been broken on one Louisiana island inhabited by sea birds in order that fresh eggs might subsequently be gathered into the boats waiting at anchor off shore. No wonder that friends of water birds were profoundly concerned about their future welfare, and hailed with delight Mr. Roosevelt's quick action.

Mr. William Dutcher, President of the National {194} Association of Audubon Societies, was so much pleased with the results achieved by the Federal reservation work of 1905, that he declared in his annual report that the existence of the Association was justified if it had done nothing more than secure Federal bird reservations and had helped to guard them during the breeding season.

That year President Roosevelt established four more bird refuges. One of these, Stump Lake, in North Dakota, became an important nursery for Gulls, Terns, Ducks, and Cormorants in summer, and a safe harbour for wild fowl during the spring and fall migrations. Huron Island and Siskiwit in Lake Superior, the homes of innumerable Herring Gulls, were made perpetual bird sanctuaries, and Audubon wardens took up their lonely watch to guard them against all comers.

_Florida Reservations._--At the mouth of Tampa Bay, Florida, is a ninety-acre island, Passage Key. Here the wild bird life of the Gulf Coast has swarmed in the mating season since white man first knew the {195} country. Thousands of Herons of various species, as well as Terns and shore birds, make this their home. Dainty little Ground Doves flutter in and out among the cactus on the sheltered sides of the sand dunes; Plovers and Sandpipers chase each other along the beaches, and the Burrowing Owls here hide in their holes by night and roam over the island by day.

When this place was described to President Roosevelt, he immediately declared that the birds must not be killed there without the consent of the Secretary of Agriculture. With one stroke of his pen he brought this desirable condition into existence, and Mrs. Asa Pillsbury was duly appointed to protect the island. She is one of the few women bird wardens in America.

These things happened in the early days of Government work for the protection of water birds. The Audubon Society had found a new field for endeavour, highly prolific in results. With the limited means at its command the work of ornithological exploration was carried forward. Every island, mud flat, and sand bar along the coast of the Mexican {196} Gulf, from Texas to Key West, was visited by trained ornithologists who reported their findings to the New York office. These were forwarded to Washington for the approval of Dr. T. S. Palmer of the Biological Survey, and Frank Bond, of the General Land Office, where executive orders were prepared for the President's signature.

The Breton Island Reservation off the coast of Louisiana, including scores of islands and bars, was established in 1904. Six additional reservations were soon created along the west coast of Florida, thus extending a perpetual guardianship over the colonies of sea and coastwise birds in that territory--the pitiful remnants of vast rookeries despoiled to add to the profits of the millinery trade.

The work was early started in the West resulting in the Malheur Lake and Klamath Lake reservations of Oregon. The latter is to-day the summer home of myriads of Ducks, Geese, Grebes, White Pelicans, and other wild waterfowl, and never a week passes that the waters of the lake are not fretted with the {197} prow of the Audubon patrol boat, as the watchful warden extends his vigil over the feathered wards of our Government.

Federal bird reservations have been formed not only of lakes with reedy margins and lonely islands in the sea, they have been made to include numerous Government reservoirs built in the arid regions of the West.

_Distant Reservations._--Once set in motion, this movement for Federal bird reservations soon swept beyond the boundaries of the United States. One was established in Porto Rico, and several others among the islands of Alaska, on whose rocky cliffs may be seen to-day clouds of Puffins, Auks, and Guillemots--queer creatures that stand upright like a man--crowding and shouldering each other about on the ledges which overlook the dark waters of Bering Sea. One reservation in Alaska covers much of the lower delta of the Yukon, including the great tundra country south of the river, embracing within its borders a territory greater than the {198} State of Connecticut. From the standpoint of preserving rare species of birds this is doubtless one of the most important reservations which has come into existence. It is here that many of the wild fowl, which frequent the California coast in winter, find a summer refuge safe alike from the bullet of the white man and the arrow of the Indian. Here it is that the lordly Emperor Goose is probably making his last stand on the American continent against the aggressions of the destructive white race.

Away out in the western group of the Hawaiian Archipelago are located some of the world's most famous colonies of birds. From remote regions of the Pacific sea birds journey hither when the instinct for mating is strong upon them. Here come "Love Birds" or White Terns, and Albatrosses, great winged wonders whose home is on the rolling deep. The number seems almost beyond belief to men and women unfamiliar with bird life in congested colonies. On February 3, 1909, these islands and reefs were included in an executive order whereby {199} the "Hawaiian Island Reservation" was brought into existence. This is the largest of all our Government bird reserves. It extends through more than five degrees of longitude.

At intervals in the past these islands had been visited by vessels engaged in the feather trade, and although no funds were available for establishing a warden patrol among them, it was fondly hoped that the notice to the world that these birds were now wards of the United States would be sufficient to insure their safety.

A rude shock was felt, therefore, when late that year a rumour reached Washington that a Japanese poaching vessel had been sighted heading for these waters. The revenue cutter _Thetis_, then lying at Honolulu, was at once ordered on a cruise to the bird islands. Early in 1910 the vessel returned, bringing with her twenty-three Japanese feather hunters who had been captured at their work of destruction. In the hold of the vessel were stored two hundred and fifty-nine thousand pairs of wings, {200} two and a half tons of baled feathers, and several large cases and boxes of stuffed birds. Had the Japanese escaped with their booty they would have realized over one hundred thousand dollars for their plunder. This island was again raided by feather collectors in the spring of 1915.

_President Taft a Bird Protectionist._--President Taft continued the policy of creating bird reservations begun by Mr. Roosevelt, and a number were established during his administration. President Wilson likewise is a warm advocate of bird protection. One of many reservations he has created is the Panama Canal Zone, which is in charge of the Panama Canal Commission. With this exception and that of the Pribilof Reservation, which is in charge of the Bureau of Fisheries, all Government bird reservations are under the care of the Department of Agriculture, and their administration is directed by the Bureau of the Biological Survey. The National Association of Audubon Societies still contributes in a modest way to the financial support of some of the wardens. {201} Below is given a full list of the Federal bird reservations created up to January, 1917, with the dates, and in the order of, their establishment:

LIST OF NATIONAL BIRD RESERVATIONS

NO. NAME DATE OF ESTABLISHMENT

1. Pelican Island, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar. 14, 1903 2. Breton Island, La. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 4, 1904 3. Stump Lake, N. Dak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar. 9, 1905 4. Huron Islands, Mich. . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 10, 1905 5. Siskiwit Islands, Mich. . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 10, 1905 6. Passage Key, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 10, 1905 7. Indian Key, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 10, 1906 8. Tern Islands, La. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 8, 1907 9. Shell Keys, La. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 17, 1907 10. Three Arch Rocks, Oregon . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 14, 1907 11. Flattery Rocks, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 23, 1907 12. Quillayute Needles, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 23, 1907 13. Copalis Rock, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 23, 1907 14. East Timbalier, La. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 7, 1907 15. Mosquito Inlet, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 24, 1908 16. Tortugas Keys, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr. 6, 1908 17. Key West, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 8, 1908 18. Klamath Lake, Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 8, 1908 19. Lake Malheur, Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 18, 1908 20. Chase Lake, N. Dak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 28, 1908 21. Pine Island, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 15, 1908 22. Palma Sola, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 26, 1908 23. Matlacha Pass, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 26, 1908 24. Island Bay, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 23, 1908 25. Lock-Katrine, Wyo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 26, 1908 26. Hawaiian Islands, Hawaii. . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 3, 1909 27. Salt River, Ariz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 28. East Park, Cal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 {202}

29. Deer Flat, Idaho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 30. Willow Creek, Mont. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 31. Carlsbad, N. Mex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 32. Rio Grande, N. Mex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 33. Cold Springs, Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 34. Belle Fourche, S. Dak. . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 35. Strawberry Valley, Utah . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 36. Keechelus, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 37. Kachess, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 38. Clealum, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 39. Bumping Lake, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 40. Conconully, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 41. Pathfinder, Wyo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 42. Shoshone, Wyo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 43. Minidoka, Idaho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909 44. Bering Sea, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909 45. Tuxedni, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909 46. St. Lazaria, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909 47. Yukon Delta, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909 48. Culebra, P. R. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909 49. Farallon, Calif. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909 50. Pribilof, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909 51. Bogoslof, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar. 2, 1909 52. Clear Lake, Calif. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr. 11, 1911 53. Forrester Island, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 11, 1913 54. Hazy Islands, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 11, 1913 55. Niobrara, Nebr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 11, 1913 56. Green Bay, Wis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 21, 1913 57. Chamisso Island, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 7, 1912 58. Pishkun, Montana. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 17, 1912 59. Desecheo Island, P. R. . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 19, 1912 60. Gravel Island, Wis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 9, 1913 61. Aleutian Islands, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . Mar. 3, 1913 62. Walker Lake, Ark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr. 31, 1913

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63. Petit Bois Island, Ala. and Miss. . . . . . . May 6, 1913 64. Anaho Island, Nevada. . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 4, 1913 65. Smith Island, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 6, 1914 66. Ediz Hook, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 20, 1915 67. Dungeness Spit, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 20, 1915 68. Big Lake, Arkansas . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 2, 1915 69. Goat Island, California . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 9, 1916 70. North Platte, Nebraska . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 21, 1916

_Audubon Society Reservations._--It may be noted from this list that there are no Government bird reservations in the original thirteen colonies. The reason is that there are no Government waste lands containing bird colonies in these states. To protect the colony-breeding birds found there other means were necessary. The Audubon Society employs annually about sixty agents to guard in summer the more important groups of water birds along the Atlantic Coast and about some of the lakes of the interior. Water-bird colonies are usually situated on islands where the birds are comparatively free from the attacks of natural enemies; hence the question of guarding them resolves itself mainly into the question of keeping people from disturbing the birds {204} during the late spring and summer months. Painted signs will not do this. Men hired for the purpose constitute the only adequate means. Some of the protected islands have been bought or leased by the Audubon Society, but in many cases they are still under private ownership and the privilege of placing a guard had to be obtained as a favour from the owner. Probably half a million breeding water birds now find protection in the Audubon reservations. On the islands off the Maine coast the principal birds safeguarded by this means are the Herring Gull, Arctic Tern, Wilson's Tern, Leach's Petrel, Black Guillemot, and Puffin. There are protected colonies of Terns on Long Island; of Terns and Laughing Gulls on the New Jersey coast; of Black Skimmers, and of various Terns, in Virginia and North Carolina.

One of the greatest struggles the Audubon Society has ever had has been to raise funds every year for the protection of the colonies of Egrets and Ibis in the South Atlantic States. The story of this fight is longer than {205} can be told in one short chapter. The protected colonies are located mainly in the low swampy regions of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. I have been in many of these "rookeries" and know that the warden who undertakes to guard one of them takes his life in his hand. Perhaps a description of one will answer more or less for the twenty other Heron colonies the Society has under its care.

_The Corkscrew Rookery._--Some time ago I visited the warden of this reservation, located in the edge of the "Big Cypress" Swamp thirty-two miles south of Ft. Myers, Florida. Arriving at the colony late in the evening, after having travelled thirty miles without seeing a human being or a human habitation, we killed a rattlesnake and proceeded to make camp. The shouting of a pair of Sandhill Cranes awakened us at daylight, and, to quote Greene, the warden, the sun was about "two hands high" when we started into the rookery. We crossed a glade two hundred yards wide and then entered the swamp. Progress {206} was slow, for the footing was uncertain and the tall sawgrass cut our wrists and faces.

There are many things unspeakably stimulating about a journey in such a tropical swamp. You work your way through thick, tangled growths of water plants and hanging vines. You clamber over huge fallen logs damp with rank vegetation, and wade through a maze of cypress "knees." Unwittingly, you are sure to gather on your clothing a colony of ravenous ticks from some swaying branch. Redbugs bent on mischief scramble up on you by the score and bury themselves in your skin, while a cloud of mosquitoes waves behind you like a veil. In the sombre shadows through which you move you have a feeling that there are many unseen things that crawl and glide and fly, and a creepy feeling about the edges of your scalp becomes a familiar sensation. Once we came upon the trail of a bear and found the going easier when we waded on hands and knees through the opening its body had made.

In the more open places the water was completely {207} covered with floating plants that Greene called "wild lettuce." These appeared to be uniform in size, and presented an absolutely level surface except in a few places where slight elevations indicated the presence of inquisitive alligators, whose gray eyes we knew were watching our movements through the lettuce leaves.

Although the swamp was unpleasant under foot, we had but to raise our eyes to behold a world of beauty. The purple blossoms of air plants, and the delicate petals of other orchids greeted us everywhere. From the boughs overhead long streamers of gray Spanish moss waved and beckoned in the breeze. Still higher, on gaunt branches of giant cypresses a hundred feet above our heads, great, grotesque Wood Ibises were standing on their nests, or taking flight for their feeding grounds a dozen miles southward.

We were now fairly in the midst of an immense bird city, and some of the inhabitants were veritable giants in the bird world. The body of a Wood Ibis {209} is about the size of a Turkey hen. Its long, bare neck terminates in a most remarkable fashion, for the top of the head is not only innocent of feathers but also destitute of skin--"Flintheads," the people call the bird. Its bill is nearly ten inches long, slightly curved and very massive. Woe to the unlucky fish or luckless rat upon whom a blow falls from the Flinthead's heavy beak! There were probably one hundred thousand of these birds inhabiting Corkscrew Rookery at the time of my visit. There were also large colonies of the smaller White Ibis and several varieties of Heron. Eight of the almost extinct Roseate Spoonbills wheeled into view above the swamp, but quickly passed from sight.

The most interesting birds, those concerning which the Audubon Society is most solicitous, are the White Egrets. These snow-white models of grace and beauty have been persecuted for their plumes almost to the point of extermination, and here is situated the largest assemblage of them left in Florida.

"Those 'long whites' are never off my mind for a {210} minute," said the warden, as we paused to watch some fly over. "Two men came to my camp last week who thought I didn't know them, but I did. They were old-time plume hunters. They said they were hunting cattle, but I knew better--they were after Egrets and came to see if I was on guard. I told them if they saw any one after plumes to pass {211} the word that I would shoot on sight any man with a gun who attempted to enter the Corkscrew. I would do it, too," he added as he tapped the barrel of his Winchester. "It is terrible to hear the young birds calling for food after the old ones have been killed to get the feathers for rich women to wear. I am not going to have my birds sacrificed that way."

The teeming thousands of birds in this rookery feed their young to a more or less extent on fish, and from the nests many fragments fall into the mud and water below. In the wise economy of nature few objects of real value are suffered to go to waste. Resting on the water plants, coiled on logs, or festooned in the low bushes, numerous cotton-mouthed water-moccasins lie in wait. Silently and motionless they watch and listen, now and then raising their heads when a light splash tells them of the approach of some heedless frog, or of the falling of some dead fish like manna from the nests above. May is the dry season, and the low water of the swamp accounted in a measure for the unusual number of snakes to {212} be seen. Exercising a fair amount of caution, I slew that morning fourteen poisonous reptiles, one of which measured more than five feet in length and had a girth I was just able to encompass with both hands.

_Wardens Shot by Plume Hunters._--This is a region where the Audubon warden must constantly keep his lonely watch, for should he leave even for a short time there would be danger of the colony being raided and the protective work of many seasons wiped out. A successful shooting trip of plume hunters to the Corkscrew might well net the gunners as much as five thousand dollars, and in a country where money is scarce that would mean a magnificent fortune. The warden is fully alive to this fact, and is ever on the alert. Many of the plume hunters are desperate men, and he never knows what moment he may need to grasp his rifle to defend his life in the shadows of the Big Cypress, where alligators and vultures would make short shrift of his remains.

He remembers, as he goes his rounds among the birds day by day, or lies in his tent at night, that a {213} little way to the south, on a lonely sand key, lies buried Guy Bradley, who was done to death by plume hunters while guarding for the Audubon Society the Cuthbert Egret Rookery. On Orange Lake, northward, the warden in charge still carries in his body a bullet from a plume gatherer's gun. Only three days before my visit Greene's nearest brother warden on duty at the Alligator Bay Colony had a desperate rifle battle with four poachers who, in defiance of law and decency, attempted to shoot the Egrets which he was paid to protect.

I like to think of Greene as I saw him the last night in camp, his brown, lean face aglow with interest as he told me many things about the birds he guarded. The next day I was to leave him, and night after night he would sit by his fire, a lonely representative of the Audubon Society away down there on the edge of the Big Cypress, standing as best he could between the lives of the birds he loved and the insatiable greed of Fashion.

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