THE OOLOGIST. 



9 



jected to this fall .would leave them 

 sadly depleted. 



Before the law was passed last win- 

 ter there was much published in the 

 daily press regarding the farmers' op- 

 position to the Pheasants, owing to 

 their destruction of crops and grain. 



After careful examination I am con- 

 vinced that they do much less dam- 

 age than the American Robin, and 

 much more good, and that more than 

 a majority of the farmers really favor 

 a close season, as they like to see 

 the birds around, and believe them to 

 be of benefit, owing to the immense 

 quantities of grasshoppers they con- 

 sume between July 15 andOct. 15. 



My inspection of the crops of a 

 number of birds this fall demonstrat- 

 ed beyond a question that even where 

 the birds were taken in fields of un- 

 husked corn, as late as Oct. 22nd, their 

 crops contained grasshoppers almost 

 excltisively. 



My experience with the Robin is 

 very discouraging, for, while I am not 

 allowed to take any birds for dissec- 

 tion, I am satisfied that, outside of the 

 immense quantities of small fruits 

 they destroy, their diet consists main- 

 ly of earthworms, and I consired this 

 of questionable benefit, probably an 

 actual damage to the agricultural in- 

 terests. 



I believe the great weight of opin- 

 ion in favor of the present Pheasant 

 law comes from the sportsmen, and 

 that most of the flagrant violations 

 were their work also. 



While I find here and there a far- 

 mer who admits taking one, two or 

 three birds, I have had authentic re- 

 ports of city i)arties with 7 to 12 

 birds in their bags, and one Rochester 

 taxidermist admits mounting 347 

 Pheasants during October. 



The law expressly prohibits the 

 disposal of any Pheasants commer- 

 cially, yet one party from Rochester 

 made in extenuation of their taking 

 a large bag of Pheasants, (they show- 

 ed 12), the statement that a certain 

 large hotel in that city was paying $1 

 each for them. 



There may be here and there a 

 Pheasant that becomes educated to 

 the point to where it becomes a nuis- 

 ance. A provision similar to that in 

 the Rabbit section, i)ermitting the 

 killing on one's own i)remises to pre- 

 vent damage would cover these cases. 



If the section enacting a close sea- 

 son for Skunks in New York is need- 

 ed at all it should also be amended 

 to read like the clause in that relat- 

 ing to Rabbits, as there are, and al- 

 ways will he, individual Skunks that 

 get educated to the possibilities of 

 the hen-coop to such an extent that 

 they can not be tolerated, and it 

 should not be necessary for anyone 

 to violate the law to compass their 

 removal. 



Yours in favor of a fair and square 

 deal for all. 



ERNEST H. SHORT. 



Newport News, Va., 



Jan. 1, 1909. 

 My dear Mr. Short: — 



In the December issue I note yoti 



are going to cover the Grebe family 



with short articles, this coming year, 



pray allow me to contribute my mite. 



PODILYMBUS PODICEPS. 



Pied-billed Grebe. 

 On one of my collecting trips dur- 

 ing my stay in California, I came 

 across a small pond or sink hole on 

 the outskirts of an apricot orchard. 

 Things looked good to me and strip- 

 ping to the waist, began my hunt in 

 the tall rushes or ttiles with which 

 the banks were lined. Rails, Ducks, 

 Blackbirds and Salt Marsh Yellow- 

 throats were found, but the hardest 

 of all was the nest of the above 

 species. The nest was a compact mass 

 of tule stems and blades, two inches 

 above the water and eighteen inches 

 below the surface. The water came 

 well above my waist line and had I 

 not seen the parent bird nearby, I 

 should have passed it, as the eggs 

 were covered as is their usual cus- 

 tom. The eggs lay in a slight hollow 

 in the center of this floating platform 

 and their weight had almost sunken 

 them level with the inside lining. On 

 lifting up the egg.-5 these cavties fill- 

 ed with water, while all the nest ma- 

 terial was soaking wet. It has al- 

 ways been a wonder to me how this 

 family of birds manage to i)roduce 

 heat enough to hatch their eggs un- 

 der such difficulties. 



H. H. BAILEY. 



