114 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



I have known men to string up a hundred of these dead, 

 rotten, stinking fish, stand up by them and have a picture taken. 

 I have known men to do the same with birds — string up a 

 hundred or more of them and stand up by them with their guns 

 and have themselves photographed in an attitude that seemed 

 to say, "See what a mighty hunter I am!" 



But few people do that nowadays. If they do succeed in 

 making a big catch of fish or a big' kill of game, they don't 

 parade up the main street with a brass band and send for the 

 photographer. They wait until after dark, sneak it into the 

 back door and don't even tell their next door neighbor about it. 

 The world is growing better all the time. 



This kingfisher bores a hole in the bank somewhere along 

 the stream and builds its nest in there. So when you are canoe- 

 ing or fishing or hiking and see a hole in the bank, and birds 

 going in and coming out, take the little fellows out and get 

 acquainted with them. If you have a camera make a picture 

 of them; if not, take some friend there who has one and make 

 a picture of them. Go back the next week, and the next, and 

 make other pictures. Take the birds some food each time and 

 they will learn to know you and welcome you. They will pose 

 for you any way you want them to, and in a little while you will 

 have a lot of beautiful pictures to put in your album. 



The golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker, or whatever you 

 may call it — it has a dozen different names — is another indus- 

 trious bug-eater, but. there are men all over the country who 

 want to kill them, too. They say they are good eating and good 

 sport. Yet each of these birds eats seventy to seventy-five 

 thousand insects each summer, and each pair feeds their babies 

 like ten to twenty thousand insects in three or four weeks. 



The blue jay is another good bug hunter and a real orna- 

 ment to shade trees about the house and in the forest. He is 

 a cheerful neighbor, and while not much of a songster, he does 

 the best he can in that line. 



The prowling house cat is a serious menace to the bird 

 world. I have the highest respect for the good-natured, domestic 

 old Thomas or Maria who stay at home and attend to their 

 duties; but I have no use for the other kind that goes hunting 

 in the fields and forests, kill all the birds they can find and eat 

 them; and these prowlers should be put out of business wherever 

 found. 



