96 



THE OOLOGIST 



the interesting iniormation Dr. 

 Thomas S. Roberts, student of orni- 

 tholcgy, gave before the members of 

 the Woman's club of Minneapohs at 

 its meeting in the Handicraft Guild 

 hall yesterday. The topic of his lec- 

 ture was "Birds in Minnesota," and a 

 hall thronged to the very doors was 

 testimony that the club women are 

 much interested in birds. 



Dr. Roberts divided the feathered in- 

 habitants of the state into classes, as 

 thirty-on^ permanent, 184 summer res- 

 idents, fc -ne migrant species, eigh- 

 teen that coi purposely to enjoy the 

 cool, bracing Minnesota winter, forty- 

 nine are regular winter species; fif- 

 teen species which are purely "acci- 

 dental" winter birds, all of which, with 

 the "accidentals," and "the during the 

 winter onlys" and the occasional vis- 

 itors, make a total of seventy-one win- 

 ter birds. 



Dr. Roberts made free use of stere- 

 opticon views, which gave a precise 

 idea of the life the Minnesota birds 

 live. The audience came face to face 

 with the humorist, the useful bird, the 

 destructive bird, the sponge, like the 

 cowbird, that lays her eggs in the nest 

 of any other bird and thus shifts the 

 responsibility of feeding and raising 

 her young to foster parents, who in 

 turn faithfully take up the obligation 

 even long after the birds are twice 

 their size. The cowbird is the only 

 Minnesota bird, however, that acts 

 thus, even the Minnesota cuckoo has 

 more pride and, contrary to the En- 

 glish cuckoo, raises its own young, al- 

 though it does not build a nest and 

 just drops its eggs on plain earth. 



Minnesota even has gulls, the rosy 

 Franklin gull, which differs from the 

 seagull in that it nests inland. The 

 hawk belongs to the destructive birds, 

 and to its ferocious disposition and de- 

 sire for bird food is due the fact that 



the grouse has become almost extinct 

 in Minnesota. 



Another destructive bird is the cher- 

 ry bird, that finds its chief delight in 

 destroying the cherry and other fruit 

 blossoms and thus impairing the crop. 

 Among the woodpeckers but one is to 

 be classed among the destructive 

 birds, the sap sucker, which lives on 

 the sap of young trees and feeds its 

 young on it and is thus responsible 

 for the killing of many a slender ash 

 and maple. Otherwise the woodpeck- 

 ers are a useful lot, as they belong to 

 the species with the sticky tongues 

 that pick up ants and destroy ant hills 

 under trees for a living. Others have 

 a tongue built like a long pliable hee- 

 dle that just picks up worms or other 

 harmful insects. 



The blackbird, the special enemy of 

 the agriculturist, was not forgotten on 

 the list of destructive ones, for it's the 

 black birds that destroys acres and 

 acres of corn just by ripping open the 

 protective silk tissues that cover the 

 ears, and by picking out carefully the 

 heart of that kernel. 



Dr. Thomas illustrated interestingly 

 the nest of the birds, and the ingen- 

 ious way in which they build to pro- 

 tect them in every possible way from 

 the casual prowler and observer, the 

 number of eggs laid by different spe- 

 cies, which in some cases is not more 

 than one, while other species, like 

 the quail, have nests with as many as 

 sixteen and more. The peculiarities 

 of the rubythroat humming bird, the 

 yellow warbler, the flickers, and all 

 the other 298 varieties were pointed 

 out in the brightly colored illustra- 

 tions thrown on the screen. 



After the meeting the Japanese 

 prints done by Mrs. Bertha Lum were 

 viewed and tea hour followed. 



