64 



THE OOLOGIST 



The Federal Migration Law. 



Our reference to the enforcement of 

 this law or its lack of enforcement 

 along the Illinois Valley, one of the 

 great highways for migratory water 

 fowl has brought a reply from the 

 Bureau of Biological Survey, which 

 says that the Department has not sus- 

 pended the regulations of the Federal 

 Migratory Bird Law, "but proposes to 

 enforce them to the best of its abil- 

 ity," and asks THE OOLOGIST to an- 

 nounce this fact in its columns. This 

 we are glad to do, and we hope that 

 the Department will not only "pro- 

 pose" to enforce this law, but that it 

 will enforce it. 



The manner of its enforcement 

 along the Illinois River is a disgrace 

 to the government. Hunting is pub- 

 licly and continually carried on. Any- 

 one traveling on the Rock Island rail- 

 road or any of the roads running up 

 and down the Illinois Valley, sees 

 hunters fully equipped, carrying guns, 

 wearing rubber boots, and with suspi- 

 cious looking bags, getting on and off 

 at all places. The boom of the guns 

 can be heard in early morn and late 

 evening from the office and home of 

 the writer almost any day, and the 

 fiagraucy of the violation is further 

 evidenced by account in the Peoria 

 Transcript of March 27th of one 

 Thomas Thompson of 200 North 

 Adams street, Peoria, who shot his 

 left hand off the day before "while 

 hunting ducks across the river yester- 

 day forenoon shortly before 6 o'clock," 

 as runs the account in the Peoria daily 

 paper aforesaid. 



The Federal Migratory bird law is 

 the one great corner stone for the pre- 

 servation for the fast diminishing fam- 

 ily of birds, and it is up to those whose 

 duty it is to see that it is enforced. 



THE OOLOGIST will be glad to 

 give them all aid within its power. 



Since writing the above the follow- 

 ing is taken from the Lacon Home 



Journal of March 30th, which shows 

 how the law is being enforced in this 

 vicinity: 



"Shooting Ducks. 

 "Some of the hunters are taking the 

 risk and are shooting ducks in opposi- 

 tion to the Federal law. A hunter 

 passed our place Sunday with a bunch 

 of eight or ten." 



Flicker. 

 On May 10, 1915, I found a Flicker's 

 nest twelve feet up in a dead elm con- 

 taining three fresh eggs. My next 

 visit to the nest was on the 18th of 

 May and it contained thirteen eggs 

 fresh. Now if the bird had laid an egg 

 every day from the tenth until the 

 eighteenth, that would account for 

 eleven eggs. All the eggs were fertile 

 but three were quite a bit larger than 

 the rmaining eight. Therefore I think, 

 as it is reasonable to suppose, that two 

 different Flickers laid eggs in this 

 nest. (Toronto). 



Goldfinch. 



On August 27, 1915, I flushed a Gold- 

 finch from her nest about fifteen feet 

 up on a horizontal branch of an oak. 

 The nest contained four perfectly 

 fresh eggs. (Toronto). 



Paul Tarrington. 



The Northern Plicated Woodpecker. 

 (Phlaotomus pileatus abieticola) 



By S. S. Dickey. 

 That scarlet-crested and attractive 

 bird, the pileated woodpecker, known 

 in some localities as Indian Hen, Log- 

 cock, and Woodcock was once a toler- 

 ably abundant species of woodpecker 

 in most of the Eastern as well as the 

 Central and Northern States. Years 

 ago it is said not to have been uncom- 

 mon to hear these wary birds as they 

 uttered their flicker-like notes or paus- 

 ed to hammer on some hollow tree 

 trunk. At that time the birds inhab- 



