The Bird Killers and Their Victims

BY J. H. PAUL, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

II BIRDS THAT ARE HUNTED In the previous article the birds of prey were described. Game, shore, and water birds will now be considered. Song birds are treated elsewhere.

UPLAND GAME BIRDS The mourning- dove, like the ill-fated passenger pigeon now exterminated, is unhappily still classed with game birds in our law. No boy scout should kill this beautiful bird, which may soon follow the passenger pigeon into oblivion. It consumes vast quantities of weed seed, hence is about two stars, **, in useful- ness its migration is slight, say to northern Mexico (SI). These ;

doves are illustrated by Audubon pictures Nos. 2 and 6. The abbreviations are explained in the May Era. The colored pictures, Mumford series (M) and Audubon series (A) will be most serviceable if pasted upon cardboard or bound into a book, with the brief description here given attached. The questions should be answered in writing after a study of the text. I know of no other method of bird study for beginners that will yield results more readily or more effectively. Birds need not be studied in any certain order, but may be taken up as fast as they can be observed in the open. California Quail, feeds on grain and insects; nests on the ground. Cats, bird hawks, coyotes, and gunners are its chief enemies. *; R. (A. 58.) Sage Grouse, feeds mainly on shoots and leaves of wild plants its numerous enemies include men, the coyote, the wild ;

cat, bird hawks, and some owls.. Hence this fine game bird, next in size to the turkey, will soon become extinct unless the people unite to save it. *** R. ;

This is also true of the gray ruffled and dusky grouse and ptarmigan; while the Gambel (M. 80) and California quail will probably survive if the protection by law is continued. (A. 63; Prairie Chicken M. 172.) Turkey Vulture, a scavenger and an aid to sanitation nests ;

on rock ledges. The enemies in the West include men, especially foreigners. *** (M. 79 Cormorant, M. 602.) ; R. ;

Of what use is (a) turkey vulture, (b) sage grouse, (c) Gambel's partridge? (d) Introduced quails and pheasants?

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726 IMPROVEMENT ERA (O. D. 181-4; 170.) "O. D. means Out of Doors in the West. Quote poets and prophets on the beauty of doves why should ;

they not be treated as game birds? (O. D. 182-3.) What values, other than for food, do game birds have? (O. D. 172-3.) Will America be a gameless continent? Why? (O. D. 170-3.)

LEADING SHORE BIRDS Kildeer, feeds largely on insects, and makes its frail nests on the ground, open to the attacks of snakes, cats, rats. ** I. ;

and C. (A. 23.) Snowy Plover, feeds mostly on small insects, nests on the ground. Bird hawks are its chief enemies. **; Ex. (M. 135; Golden *** C; M. 204; Upland, M. 147.) Phalarope, Wilson's, feeds partly on insects, nests on the ground; enemies are men, bird hawks, and rats. **; Ex. (M. 77; Northern Phalarope, M. 475.) Wilson Snipe, feeding largely on aquatic insects and worms makes its nest in a tuft of grass; its chief enemy is the sports- man. **; C. (M. 169; Marbled Godwit, M. 410.) Yellow legs, feeds on snails, worms, minnows, etc.; nests on ground near the marsh. Chief enemy, the sportsman. ** I. ;

and C. (M. 75; spotted sandpiper, A. 51 Least, A. 52.) ;

Western Willet, feeds chiefly on water insects and Crustacea nests in tussocks of grass, near water's edge. Chief enemies, rats, man. ** I. ; (M. 361; Avocet, C. M. 64; Black-necked Stilt, C. and Ex.; M. 155.) Long-billed Curlew, worms, small molluscs, and insect larvae, taken with its long bill from the soft ground. The nest is a slight depression in a dry meadow bottom. The chief enemy is man, who may soon exterminate it rats, coyotes, wild cats, and ;

birds of prey all are helping man in his determined efforts to put an end to this fine species. **; I. (M. 506.) What good or harm do shore birds do? (O. D. 184-5.) Which shore birds are peculiar to the West? (O. D. 187- 189.) How distinguish, at sight, the kildeer, Wilson snipe, yellow legs, willet, and curlew?

OTHER NOTABLE SHORE SPECIES Snowy Egret feeds on small fishes, frogs, and aquatic in- ;

sects chief enemy, the woman of fashion, who wears egret ;

feathers. Except in a few places this egret has been practically exterminated by the plume hunters. Utah has a few colonies of these fine birds about Bear River, and mav succeed in saving

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THE BIRD KILLERS AND THEIR VICTIMS 727

them. **; Ex. (M. 70; Great Blue Heron, SI. or I, M. 159; Crane, M. 224; Black-crowned night heron, M. 53.) White-faced Glossy Ibis food consists of crayfish, frogs, ;

snails, and aquatic insects breeds in colonies with herons and ;

other marsh birds in swamps. Enemies, rats and gunners. ** I. (M. 166.) American Bittern, feeding on frogs, small fishes and water insects nest on or near ground chief enemies, rats, men. ; ; * C. ;

(M. 321.) White Pelican, of no known value except as objects of curi- osity and science, feeding on fish. Nest a simple depression in the sand of Bird Island in Great Salt Lake. Tourists are their greatest menace; but fishermen massacre them in great numbers. SI (M. 395.) Why is the strange claim made that "pelicans feed the gulls" ?

What would happen to Salt Lake gulls if pelicans should be exter- minated? (O. D. 196-198.) What three striking features of external form are common to herons, ibises, stilts, and pelicans? Which of these features is less pronounced with the crane ? Why ? What habits do these char- acters prove? (O. D. 194-200.)

SOME OF THE SWIMMERS

Coot or mudhen, feeds on insects, seeds, and vegetation; build nests in colonies a few feet apart of interlaced reeds and rushes, floating on the water surface, but anchored among the

growing reeds. The enemies are water rats, birds of prey, and gunners ambitious to kill something. * ; SI. or I. ( M. 140 ; Rail

**;S1.; M. 297.) Mallard, the finest of wild ducks. It deserves a high rating

as the progenitor of domestic ducks, and because of its use as The nest on the ground in grass near the edges of ponds. game. is other The chief enemy is man, ably seconded by duck hawks, and predaceous animals. *** C. (A. 36; also birds of prey, ;

canvasback, M. 65; pintail, A. 76; shoveler A 84; ga dwall, M. 554; Canada goose. M. 162; swans, M. 2/0; teal, M. 306, 298, 104 ; old squaw, 165.) .

Bonaparte gull, nest on ground; enemies, men. SI. (M. California gull, the Salt Lake species, has likewise but 252 ) the gulls, and of the slVht migration. *** in use. An account of them, given in Farm Foes and Western "crickets destroyed by is

Bird Helpers. .

large insects, Black Tern; the food consists of small fish, or standing rushes in water rats and etc • the nest is on floating ;

are chief enemies. * Ex.. (M. 28 Forster's other animals its ; ;

Tern, M. 29.)

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728 IMPROVEMENT ERA What is proved by the bills of pelicans? Blue herons? Avocets? Curlews? Mergansers? Gulls? Terns? Ducks? Geese? (O. D. 192-3.) What peculiarity in the mating of phalaropes? (O. D. 193.) What life ways are indicated by the legs and feet of stilts, pelicans, herons, cranes, gulls? (O. D. 194-201.)

LOWEST AND STRANGEST FORMS Eared Grebe, food mainly aquatic insects and probably small fish ; nests usually float in about 18 inches of water, built of reeds and debris. The chief enemies are men and birds of prey. * I. and C. (M. 363 Pied Billed, M. 37.) ;

Loon; this rare migrant should be saved if possible. *; I. (A. 78.) What life ways are indicated by the wings of terns and ducks? The feet and tail of loons and grebes? The bill of loons and cormorants? (O. D. 202-8.) In the last report of the State Bureau of Statistics, a copy of which may be found in public libraries, an account is given of how all these birds are diminishing in number. More than any other class of people, boy scouts may be able to aid in saving them. Will the boys help? Upon their response may depend the future of the wild game in Western America.

Shall the Man go Free? When two are caught by the web of sin, With its meed of shame close woven in, Have you ne'er wondered why it should be, That only at length the man goes free? Goes free while the woman writhes therein, As the world moves on with scorn or grin, Or with eyes averted, void of care, For her who alone the sting must bear? Shall the man go free? O sister mine, Free through the realms of the future time, When he shall take and shall fling aside, A woman's glory, a woman's pride? 'Tis you and I who are most to blame For woman's anguish, she must remain Insnared, the target for word and brand, Till we shall lend a more helpful hand. When woman to woman shall loyal be, Then shall the man go no longer free, When two are caught by the web of sin, With its meed of shame close woven in. Grace Ingles Frost