BIRD SANCTUARIES. The provision of sanctuaries in which birds may nest and live safe from molestation is the most effective method of protecting birds. A sanctuary may be a nature reserve, where all wild life is encouraged, or be maintained for the benefit of certain species. Protection may be afforded by the State, a municipality, a society, or a private individual; in any case the reserve must be secure from poaching or collecting. National reserves, many State-supported, are maintained in the British Isles, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and other parts of the empire, in the United States and various European countries. Municipal parks all the world over are, as a rule, effective sanctuaries.
Guarded reserves have saved from extermination many species of economic or aesthetic importance; the plume-bearing herons and egrets in America, the kiwis in New Zealand, the spoonbill in Holland, and the Kentish plover in England are examples. Pro tection societies usually aim at preserving all birds on a reserve, but this policy has drawbacks; not only may unrestricted increase of predatory species decrease the birds they feed upon, but more adaptable birds, becoming competitors for food and nesting sites, often crowd out those in greater need of protection. Black headed and herring-gulls are in some sanctuaries in Britain and Holland threatening the welfare of rarer birds, and in the Shet land reserves the great skua, nearly extinct before their founda tion, is.now a serious problem. Privately owned sanctuaries, some even game preserves, where discreet selection of species is the rule, have done much to protect and reinstate threatened birds.
The magpie, jay and other avian egg robbers often are too numerous in municipal parks and society reserves for the welfare of smaller passerine birds; but on private estates their depreda tions are checked. The re-establishment in East Anglia of the bittern as a nesting species is a triumph of private protection. In all parts of the world the preservation of undrained marshes, woodland, and untilled open country has justified the public and private expenditure and care bestowed upon them, by the increase of rare, formerly exploited birds.
In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, yielding to the urgings of the Audubon Association officials, began setting aside, by execu tive order, areas of Government lands known as "Federal Bird Reservations." He did this with the understanding that for a time at least the association should bear the expenses of guarding them. Other presidents have since followed this example and such reser vations created by this method and administrated by the U.S. Biological Survey (1939) number 265, distributed in 41 States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Many of these are very important gathering places of waterfowl. Malheur lake, a famous summer ing place for ducks, geese, grebes, terns, and white pelicans in south-eastern Oregon, contains about 95,155 acres. Big lake, a popular winter resort for ducks in eastern Arkansas, covers 9,821 acres. Anaho island in Pyramid lake, Nev., contains the nesting places of the largest single colony of white pelicans in the United States. Other areas are only an acre or two in extent, and are inhabited by small numbers of brown pelicans, cormorants, or terns. In addition to the above, the Biological Survey has under its jurisdiction 136 migratory waterfowl refuges created during recent years, which cover an acreage of 1,611,711 acres. Also, the Survey controls I2 big-game preserves and refuges where birds are protected. The total acreage of these areas is 6,559,886. The combined acreage of the 257 wildlife refuges, of all kinds, administered by the Bureau of Biological Survey, is 13,528,239 acres.
The United States National Park Service (1939) has under its jurisdiction 1S4 areas on which wild birds are protected at all times. These are classified as follows: parks (27), historical parks (2), monuments (78), military parks (1 1), battlefield sites (8), historic sites (4), recreational area (I), memorials (8), cemeteries (II), capital park (1) , parkways (3) . These cover a total area of 32,527 square miles.
A very adequately administrated reservation for wild fowl in the United States, the Paul J. Rainey Wild Life sanctuary, situ ated in Vermilion Parish, La., is owned and maintained by the National Association of Audubon Societies. Its 4o sq.m. of marshes are not only patrolled by guards throughout the year, but by constant supervision, the ponds, canals and levees are kept in good condition. New areas are being planted with vegetation enjoyed by ducks, and hundreds of bushels of grain are fed annually to the feathered hosts that assemble here. The Audubon Association maintains 36 sanctuaries of varying degrees of im portance. They are distributed as follows: Florida (7), Louis iana (3), Maine (3), New Jersey (2), New York (2), Pennsyl vania (I), Texas (17), Virginia (I).
There is also a different type of sanctuary—one designed espe cially for small birds. Usually the area selected is undeveloped woodland near a village, where birds are supplied with nesting boxes, feeding trays and places for drinking and bathing. Here people can come to study the habits and activities of the birds of the neighbourhood and acquire first-hand knowledge of the best methods of attracting them about the home. The sanctuary of the Meridan, New Hampshire Bird Club, established in 1911, was the first one of this kind to attract special notice. The type has become popular, and new ones are constantly being established. Among the better known and more adequately administered small-bird sanctuaries are "Birdcraft" at Fairfield, Conn., "Moose Hill" in Massachusetts, and the "Roosevelt Memorial," near the grave of Theodore Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, N. Y. At these places special care is exercised to guard birds against the depredation of hunters and wild-life enemies. They are in charge of naturalists who explain to thousands of visitors the meaning and usefulness of a bird sanctuary, and how to care for wild birds about one's home.
Of recent years many States have been establishing "Wild Life Refuges." With few exceptions these are forest areas, wherein all hunting of game birds and animals is prohibited. They are de signed chiefly as safe breeding and feeding places for game which may so increase under protection, that they will eventually spread to the surrounding country and provide better hunting territory for sportsmen. To a considerable extent they are bird sanctuaries. City and State parks likewise are usually immune from hunting, for the restrictions against shooting or trapping are carefully en forced in many of them. In some cities the park boards have caused to be erected many bird-nesting boxes and drinking foun tains. (T. G. P.) a name applied to various small bright flowers, especially those which have a small spot or "eye" in the centre. The primula is thus spoken of, on account of its yellow centre, also the adonis, or "pheasant's eye," and the blue veronica, or germander speedwell. The word is also applied to a sort of tobac co, in which the stalks (of a mottled colour) are cut up together with the leaves. From a similar sense comes the phrase "bird's eye maple," a speckled variety of maple-wood, or the "bird's-eye handkerchief" mentioned in Thackeray's novels.
a general term for the collection of birds' eggs for preservation, with or without the nests themselves. The nests and eggs of wild birds are protected by local laws almost everywhere in both Great Britain and the United States. By law they may be taken for scientific purposes only, by special licence. In order not to interfere seriously with breeding it is customary to take but one egg from a nest, and, if the nest itself be taken, to wait until the young birds have left it. Every egg, unless "hard-set," should be blown as soon as removed from the nest. This is done by opening a small hole in its side by means of a drill with a conical head, manufactured for the purpose, a minute hole for the insertion of the drill-head having first been made in the shell with a needle, which is then used to stir up the con tents, so that they shall flow easily. A blow-pipe with a curved mouth is then inserted, the egg is held hole downwards, and the contents blown out. The old-fashioned method of making two holes in the egg is thus superseded. Should the egg be "hard-set" a somewhat larger hole is made, and its edges reinforced with layers of paper pasted round them. Minute forceps are then intro duced and the embryo cut into pieces small enough to pass through the hole. The inside of the egg is then rinsed out with clean water, and also before being placed in the cabinet, with a solution of corrosive sublimate, which prevents decay and con sequent discolouration of the inner membrane. Finally the egg is placed with the hole downwards upon a sheet of white blotting paper to dry. The authentication of the eggs is the most important duty of an egg-collector, next to identifying the specimens.
Many ornithologists hold that bird-nesting should be discour aged as a serious menace to all the rarer birds.