This result was due largely to the work of the Union's Committee on Migration, which, under the direction of its chairman, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, sent out thousands of circulars calling for observers to supply it with data on migration. Circumstances have thus far permitted the publication of only a small portion of the vast amount of information secured by this committee, but even if not another word is set in type, it can be said to have created a new era in the history of American ornithology. It asked for assistance, but it gave far more than it received. Its chairman and his superintendents of districts became, as it were, instructors in ornithology, with pupils in nearly every state in the Union and throughout Canada. The value of the advice they gave to students who had been plodding in the dark, prompted only by an innate love of birds, cannot be overestimated, but we believe it to be a demonstrable fact that the popularity of bird-study in this country to-day is due more to the aid and encouragement given students by the members of the American Ornithologists' Union's Committee on Migration than to any other influence.
In connection with the publication of a plate of 'Quills to Avoid,' we would add to Mrs. Wright's plea for the Eagle an appeal for the preservation of the Brown Pelican. The feathers of this bird are now worn so commonly--hundreds may be seen in New York City daily--that every one knowing of the ease with which the bird may be killed and its comparatively restricted range, must feel that at the present rate of destruction its early extinction, at least in the United States, is assured.
From Texas reports come to us of the slaughter of Brown Pelicans in large numbers, and we have also heard rumors that they are being killed for their feathers in Florida. If the residents of the last-named state could be made to realize how infinitely more valuable to them a live Pelican is than a dead one, we do not for a moment doubt that its destroyers would speedily receive their deserts.
This apparently ungainly, but in reality singularly graceful bird is the most picturesque element in the life of Florida's coasts, where its size and familiarity render it conspicuous to the least observing. To the tourist it is as much an object of interest as the alligators or cabbage palms. It is distinctly strange and foreign, and its presence lends a character to the view given by no other bird in Florida. Its loss would, therefore, be irreparable, and we appeal to every lover of Florida to aid in its protection.