THE OOLOOIST. 



171 



the world as any other class of natural 

 history students, and without doubt 

 has done more towards shaping the 

 ultimate course of ornithological in- 

 vestigation among the men who have 

 made a name in that science than any 

 other single element we know of. 

 Nearly all of them started out in early 

 life as collectors of birds eggs, and in 

 that pursuit learned the necessity of 

 careful painstaking accurrate obser- 

 vation and record keeping, which has 

 followed them throughout life, and has 

 stored the pages of American Orni- 

 thological literature with the vast 

 quantity of valuable information now 

 accessible therein. 



THE ILLINOIS WAY! 



HUNTERS MAY MAKE $2.50 DAY. 



State Game Warden Wants Wild Fowl 

 Captured Alive to Restock 

 Farm. 

 L. C. Heim, of Marine, Madison 

 county game warden, has given notice 

 that he will hire for the state any 

 hunters who will capture alive and un- 

 injured wild ducks to be put on the 

 state game farm at Auburn. Mr. 

 Heim states that he was authorized 

 by the state game commissioner, J. 

 A. Wheeler, to make the ofter of good 

 wages to hunters who would enter 

 the state's employ. The game com- 

 missioner said that the entire stock of 

 wild ducks at the game farm had been 

 drowned. The ducks, Mr. Wheeler 

 said, hail been dei)rived of water for 

 swimming so long that they had de- 

 generated, and when freshets came re- 

 cently and swelled the creeks and 

 pcnds the ducks, having lost their abil- 

 ity to swin, were drowned. They could 

 not produce the natural oil that water- 

 proofs a duck's feathers. It has been 

 found necessary to re])lenish the stock 

 for breeding purposes. Mr. Heim 



said that any hunter could earn $2. .50 

 a day. The ducks must be trapped or 

 snared without wounding them. 



The foregoing is clipped from an 

 Illinois paper and shows the manner 

 in which the Illinois tax payer is 

 flim-flammed out of his money. Of 

 course during a season of drouth the 

 la.\ payer should believe that the duck 

 would in a few weeks lose its ability 

 to swim. Also that its system would 

 cease to produce the natural oil for 

 water-proofing its feathers. If we are 

 not in error, all natural history re- 

 search shows that birds of all fami- 

 lies, including the duck tribe, lose 

 these natural instincts and attain- 

 ments when deprived of their ordinary 

 surroundings for a few weeks. How- 

 ever if the Illinois tax payer is will- 

 ing to swallow the foregoing, we pre- 

 sume that we can stand it; but we 

 take this kind of "dope" as a citizen of 

 Illinois and as one whose money with 

 other inhabitants of the state is being 

 squandered in the above manner as 

 the small boy took the straddle bug — 

 not as a matter of choice, but as a 

 matter of have to. And the ducks 

 were drowned? 



Tliinijili |)i"(lii'r I"c:iry c l.iiiii ili*^ 

 t-ridii U'\- iliMl rei-dnl pnlrii' nip. iln- 

 fcllnw wild deserves ii :ni(l i lii' iiimii 

 wild iddic tlic skip is MisUier hdoU"-. 



/eppeliii iK'Kiiis nl I lie lowesi line in 

 the iilpli.ibet. hut the iiiiin himself is 

 very near the toj) letter class in his 

 trade. 



That word ••diictyloloRraphs" sboiiM 

 be submitted lo the siiiipiitii'd spelling 

 board before it is tried on tyiiewriter 

 girls. 



In suitably lidiidriiiL' liie iiii'iiidry of 

 Victor Huso pieseiil dji,\ I':iiisi;ins 

 draw honor u|)<)u iheinselves. 



