374 



Bird- Lore 



to formulate methods of operation on the 

 part of the guano collectors which would 

 prevent this catastrophe. 



It is an elo(|uent comment on the ways 

 of what we arc pleased to term civilized 

 man, that the procedures recommended by 

 Mr. Coker, while less severe, were, in 

 effect, those adopted by the Inca before 

 the Conquest! Quoting from an early 

 author, Mr. Coker writes: "In the time 

 of the Inca Kings, such vigilance in 

 guarding the birds was maintained that, 

 at the time of breeding, it was forbidden 

 to anyone to enter on those islands under 

 penalty of death, in order that they might 

 not disturb them nor drive them from their 

 nests. Neither was it permitted to kill 

 them at any time, within or without 

 the islands, under like penalty." Here, 

 surely, we have one of the earliest as well 

 as one of the most drastic of bird laws. 



Mr. Coker's paper abounds in further 

 interesting observations. He has made a 

 contribution of the first importance to 

 our knowledge of the bird-life of what we 

 believe is, ornithologically, one of the most 

 interesting regions in the world. — F. M. C. 



Water Birds of Minnesota; Past and 

 Present. By Thomas S. Roberts, M. 

 D., Curator Zoological Museum, Uni- 

 versity of IMinnesota. Biennial Report 

 State Game and Fish Commission of 

 Minnesota, for the Biennial Period End- 

 ing July 31, 1918, Minneapolis, Minn., 

 1919. Pages 56-91; numerous photo- 

 graphs. 



Dr. Roberts deals with the 'Past' of 

 his subject in the following impressive 

 sketch of the bird-life of Minnesota as 

 it existed when white men first saw it: 



"When the region that is now included 

 within the boundaries of the state of 

 Minnesota was first invaded by white men, 

 the wild-life conditions were vastly dif- 

 ferent from those that exist at the present 

 time. The earlier explorers found great 

 herds of buffalo and elk grazing along the 

 bluffs of the Mississippi River, deer 

 filled the woodlands, beaver abounded in 

 all the streams and lakes, and the primeval 

 forests of the north sheltered great numbers 

 of moose, caribou, black bear and other 

 mammals that are now little more than a 



tradition. The diversified and fertile 

 uplands and the equally varied and bounti- 

 ful waters supported a bird population 

 that astonished and tested the descriptive 

 powers of the early narrators. Ducks of 

 many species bred in vast numbers and 

 rose in dense clouds before the voyageurs' 

 canoes. The honk of the Canada Goose 

 resounded far and wide throughout the 

 summer months, and legions of Wavies, 

 Speckle-bellies, and Blue Geese passed to 

 and fro spring and fall. The prairies in 

 the nesting season were alive with Upland 

 Plover, great Sickle-billed Curlews, Wil- 

 lets, the beautiful Avocet and countless 

 thousands of great, noisy Marbled God- 

 wits; while as migrants came an innumer- 

 able host of other shore-birds, conspicu- 

 ous among which were great flocks of 

 Golden and Black-bellied Plovers and 

 Eskimo Curlews. About the margins of 

 the many shallow lakes, majestic Trum- 

 peter Swans reared their young, and big 

 flocks of Whistling Swans settled on the 

 open waters to rest and feed on their long 

 flights to and from the far Northland. 

 Great, snow-white Whooping Cranes, and 

 thousands of the more sombre-hued 

 Sandhill Cranes, built their huge nests in 

 the marshes, paraded and danced in 

 stately fashion on the prairie upland or 

 trumpeted loudly from on high. Vast 

 flocks of Passenger Pigeons obscured the 

 sun and filled the woodlands with their 

 noisy roostings and their eager scramble 

 for the fallen acorns. 



"If reports are true, the whistle of the 

 Bob-white was a rare sound in those early 

 days, but the Sharp-tailed or White- 

 breasted Grouse — the Prairie Chicken of 

 all this region at that time — abounded in 

 the open country and the 'drumming' of 

 the Ruffed Cirouse echoed everywhere 

 through the woodlands. The 'booming' 

 of the Pinnated Grouse came later, with 

 the advent of the settlers' grainfields, and 

 followed the Sharp-tails as they retreated 

 westward and northwestward before the 

 advancing harvest that lured the Prairie 

 Hen from its original home on the great 

 ])rairies of the Middle States. 



"Hawks and Owls, Eagles and X'ultures 



