330 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Swallows of all kinds are expert fly- 

 catchers, taking all their food on the 

 wing. Happy should be the fortunate 

 individual who can attract about his 

 place numbers of these beautiful and 

 useful birds. They will keep the air 

 swept clear of all mosquitoes, gnats 

 and other flying pests. A certain farm- 

 er "way down east" has succeeded in 

 getting all four species to nest in his 

 dooryard — the martins in a colony 

 house, the tree swallows in individual 

 bird boxes and the barn and cliff swal- 

 lows inside and under the eaves of his 

 barn. Every year when his friends ar- 

 rive from far-off South America he gets 

 a quantity of clay from the near-by 

 lake and mixes it to the right consis- 

 tency in his dooryard. The swallows 

 sit about expectantly waiting. No 

 sooner has he stepped aside than they 

 are at it. filling beaks with clay pellets 

 which they, skilled masons as they are, 

 work into the structure of their homes. 

 Here is a hint to all who wish to help 

 these birds and to attract them for 

 neighbors. This man lives far from 

 towns and railroads, in the big woods, 

 in the heart of a mosquito infested re- 

 gion. But while the swallows are about 

 the mosquito pest is negligible. The 

 birds snap them up as fast as they ap- 

 pear in the dooryard. 



Now is the time to plan our attrac- 

 tions for the swallows and other birds. 

 Build your bird houses, fasten them in 

 position on poles or on trees, and have 

 the tenements ready when the migrants 

 appear in the spring. 



While Dutch navigators who landed 

 on the Island of Mauritius in the Six- 

 teenth Century called this bird "wal- 

 ghvogel" or "nauseous," because it was 

 not very palatable with any kind of 

 cooking, yet it became extinct because 



The Extinct Dodo. 



Mt. Morris, Illinois. 

 To the Editor : 



Some persons not versed in natural 

 history, when they hear the dodo re- 

 ferred to, imagine it to have been some 

 fabled bird of the distant past. As a 

 matter of fact, up to about two hundred 

 and fifty years' ago, this bird was plen- 

 tiful on the Island of Mauritius, near 

 the African coast, its only known habi- 

 tat. It derives its name from the Por- 

 tugese word "doudo," meaning "sim- 

 pleton." The bird was twice as large 

 as an average sized turkey. Its plu- 

 mage, was ash-colored, its bill darkish, 

 and its legs and feet clumsy and yellow. 

 No dodo was known to exist after 1681. 



THE EXTINCT DODO. 



it was eagerly sought for the table in 

 the absence of daintier food. In 1870, 

 when Colonel Nicholas Pike was Amer- 

 ican Consul in Mauritius, he presented 

 to the American Museum of Natural 

 History of New York City, through 

 Mr. J. Carson Brevoort, a number of 

 bones of this extinct bird that had been 

 excavated on the island. With these 

 bones and some others received from 

 the University of Cambridge, Eng- 

 land, a complete, articulated skeleton 

 has been constructed and is on exhibi- 

 tion in the above mentioned museum. 

 The restored specimen, shown here, is 

 also the property of this museum. 



H. E. Zimmerman. 



As a matter of fact the dodo was 

 "eaten off the face of the earth by glut- 

 tonous man." Although not a dainty 

 it was doubtless better than the loon, 

 albatros or shearwater, all of which 

 are eaten, and it was killed and de- 

 voured by the Dutch navigators. Al- 

 most any fresh meat tastes good after 

 three or four months at sea, and the 

 dodo was big, fat and easily caught. 

 Several were brought alive to Europe 



