THE OOLOGIST 



117 



strengthen the beautiful ties of brother- 

 ly love. Now should this first sports- 

 man move into the twenty-five district 

 he immediately brings the limit up to 

 that number. So you see the game hog 

 is not well defined. However, one 

 thing is certain — he is always the other 

 fellow. Then all hunters are not sports- 

 men, The hunter's instinct is so strong 

 among a certain humble class as to ren- 

 der them fit to gain a living by hunting 

 only. They are looked down upon as 

 beings mean and lowlv and called mar- 

 ket hunters. When the sportsman re- 

 turns from a successful hunt he adver- 

 tises his generosity and skill by dis 

 tributing the game among friends, but 

 the other can not afford to do this and 

 sells, thus proclaiming himself no 

 sportsman. Then there is this market 

 hunter's point of view but we dare not 

 further encroach upon the readers time 

 and patience. 



So realizing the chaos of varying 

 opinions that surround him it is no 

 wonder the Ornithologist is indifferent 

 and relies wholly upon his own judg- 

 ment. Were he to take a hundred 

 people at random and decide to do ex- 

 actly right according to the advice of 

 each he would discover the existence of 

 a hundred different ways of doing ex- 

 actly right in no other way. He has 

 somehow conceived the idea of freedom 

 in the land, and shoots what birds he 

 wants and takes what eggs he wants 

 and conducts personal affairs to suit 

 himself. People think nothing of rear- 

 ing trusting little chickens to be 

 slaughtered, yet many of them con- 

 demn the Ornithologist's bloody work. 

 Inconsistant as this may seem he is not 

 offended because he knows them to be 

 voicing what they sincerely believe. 

 He simply understands and makes due 

 allowance for the weakness of human 

 nature. As all of us are more or less 

 smitten with superstition and suscept- 

 ible to flattery — although we seldom 

 admit it— so are we influenced by popu- 



lar opinions and customs. Sinful as it 

 may be a woman can put birds on her 

 hat and add a few artificial flowers 

 and look like an angel. Let man put 

 birds and flowers on his hat and he 

 looks like an ass. We will now close 

 in rhyme. 

 Jones bought a baby eagle, and to pass 



the time away, 

 He kicked and cuffed the helpless bird 



some twenty times a day. 

 He nearly cracked its infant skull and 



broke its neck in half 

 And to its screams of fear and pain he 



would merely grin and laugh. 

 He assaulted it with an Indian club and 



beat it black and blue, 

 And scarcely noticed that each day the 



bird a little grew. 

 One morning he took a raw-hide whip 



and hit it hard and slick; 

 The bird answered not a cry but did 



something mighty quick. 

 A tearing, ripping sound was heard; 

 Which was Jone3? which was bird? 

 Someone enjoyed a heap of fun, 

 Someone round like a pinwheel spun. 

 Someone was on vengeance bent, 

 Someone's hide by claws was rent, 

 Someone's heels went in the air, 

 Someone landed everywhere. 

 Someone's head the earth did smite, 

 Someone lay in inky night, 

 Someone awoke and slowly upsat; 

 "Great Caesar!" cried someone where 



am I at. 

 Someone's doctor found him dead by 



half, 

 Someone recovered but had ceased to 



laugh. 

 Moral— The ornithologist is a healthy 

 infant and growing every day. 



J. Claire Wood, 

 Detroit, Mich. 



The Nesting- of Birds. 



In a large number of the nests of the 

 Brown Pelican, which I examined on 

 an island in Florida, all gave evidence 



