LOUISIANA CONSERVATION REVIEW 
 
 
April, 19834 
 
 
head, and flew away. So this attempt was with- 
out much success. 
   During the late Summer of 1933, I covered the 
 bottom of a small shallow pond in the centre of 
 the Blue Goose feeding territory with fine gravel, 
 knowing that once geese found where gravel could 
 be gotten they would go to it regularly. Having 
 procured a lot of very small steep traps to which 
 light weights were attached, I, after the geese 
 began coming regularly to the graveled pond, had 
 my chief warden, Lionel LeBlanc, build a blind 
 of the native grass on the edge of the pond, and 
 after setting a number of the traps, he would get 
 into the blind to wait results. In this way he 
 caught in a few days one hundred and fifty-two 
 Blue Geese and nine Lesser Snow Geese; all of 
 which were banded and liberated at once. From 
 this entire lot only one was injured, as the traps 
 were so small that the geese were caught by the 
 toes only, and as they were only in the traps a 
 few minutes, the toes would not even be bruised 
 severely. This is by far the easiest way to cap- 
 ture Blue Geese for banding. 
   A few Blue Geese come in with my decoys at 
 Avery Island each year, and these become so tame 
 that the man in charge often catches them with 
 his hands, while feeding the other geese. For 
 after they learn to eat grain, they will come to 
 his feet if he spreads grain around him, and he 
 only has to make a quick grab to catch them. 
   The 1933 crop of Blue and Lesser Snow Geese 
was exceptionally heavy, as there were more 
young birds showing in the flocks than I have 
seen for many years. 
   When the geese first arrived in early Novem- 
ber, 1933, not much of the three-cornered grass- 
on the roots of which they feed-had been burned, 
and as the grass was unusually high and thick, 
the geese often mashed down small areas and 
would then tunnel in under the standing grass to 
feed on the roots. Two of my men, Aras Guidry 
and Lionel LeBlanc, found that by walking as 
closely as possible to these feeding geese and then 
running at them, they could catch some of the 
geese with their hands before they could take 
wing, and in this manner they caught quite a 
number, but as it seemed to frighten the geese, 
I had this method stopped. 
  The percentage of bands returned by sportsmen 
in relation to the number of ducks banded is an 
indication of the percentage of the wild fowl pop- 
ulation actually killed by the hunters of the Coun- 
try. I think, fully 50% of the banded birds shot 
are reported to the Biological Survey. If this be 
true, from my banding of 21,996 wild fowl, there 
has been returns of 2,116 or 10%. Ths indicates 
that not more than 20% of the wild fowl supply 
 
 
is killed by hunters. If there is a larger reduction 
annually of the wild fowl supply, it must be from 
other causes than shooting. 
   The great concentration of wild fowl in the low 
 lands of Louisiana in winter makes it imperative 
 that the Federal Government establish additional 
 feeding and resting grounds where the birds will 
 not be disturbed in this State. 
                       ,O 
  ADDITIONAL POLLUTION REGULATIONS 
      PRESCRIBED BY COMMISSIONER 
             OF CONSERVATION 
 
   General regulations issued by the Louisiana De- 
 partment of Conservation, September 28, 1933, 
 "prohibit the pollution of public waters in the 
 State of Louisiana". 
   Attention is invited to the fact that pollution 
 of navigable waters by oil constitutes a violation 
 of the Federal "Oil Pollution Act", approved June 
 7, 1924 (Stats. L., Vol. 43, pp. 604-606). 
   The Louisiana Department of Conservation will 
 immediately report to the proper United States 
 government officials for appropriate action under 
 the above named law, any pollution observed in 
 navigable waters. 
   The following are special rules covering a 
 definite type of pollution which necessitates im- 
 mediate control by violators: 
   Rule 3. CONSTRUCTION OF WALL TO 
PREVENT POLLUTION: All persons, firms, 
corporations, or operators, producing oil in the 
tidal marsh or fresh water swamp areas in the 
State of Louisiana, shall be required to construct 
a wall, composed of impervious material, sur- 
rounding each producing well, each relay station, 
each storage tank, and each loading rack. This 
wall shall be constructed so as to prevent any oil 
from escaping either beneath or above such wall. 
This wall shall be constructed to such a height so 
as to prevent high tide or overflowing waters 
from flowing over into the inside of such wall. 
  Where such operations are located on dry land, 
it will be necessary for the operator to construct 
a levee of sufficient height around each producing 
well, relay station, storage tank, or loading rack 
in order to prevent any oil from escaping or over- 
flowing in such localities. 
  Rule 4. DRIP PAN UNDER EACH DER- 
RICK LOCATED IN WATER: All persons or 
operators having derricks, used in the drilling of 
wells, for oil, natural gas, sulphur or other min- 
erals, located in swamps, tidal marshes or fresh 
or salt water bodies, shall be required to prevent 
the waste of oil used for lubricating purposes. A 
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