180 



USEFUL BIRDS 



male could reach nn nearer the limning reality than the coldest 

 prose could paint the rainbow. Science, after all her most impos- 

 ing" assumptions, would sit down and wee]) before the task in 

 black despair. The impotence of all attemjits has smirched the 

 skirts of ho|)e by what has Ijeen essayed in its systematic, as well 

 as its vernacular nomen.clature. .li.v sf'Otisa! Shades of Linnaeus, 

 weep cold, clammy tears for thine irremedial dereliction ! Wood 

 Duck ! Summer Duck !" 



Unlike the majority of ducks, these birds breed in hollow 

 trees overhanging the water. They are tyj^ically North Ameri- 

 can, ranging from h^lorida to Hudson Bay. but wintering far to 

 the south of otir most southern borders. Protected in Minnesota 

 until 1918. 



THE GOLDEN PLOVER. 



A l)ird also uncommon, in that it is here irregularly during 

 the migrations, remaining wnth us only a short time, and now, we 

 believe, rapidly disappearing. The illustration is given here as 

 representing the tvpe. The Killdeer or Ringneck Plover, common 

 in loW'-lying fields and frequently seen about the barnyard, easily 

 recognized not only by its rather plaintive note but particularly by 

 the l)]ack band across the white breast, consumes the larvae of many 

 injurious insects found in pastures and meadows; it eats wire- 

 worms, caterpillars, grasshoppers and crickets and the eggs of 

 the two latter. 



\\'hile with us, the food of the Golden Plover consists chiefly 

 of grasshoppers and other insects. Together with the Upland 

 Plover or i'"ield TMover, another \anishing 1)ird, it is protected in 

 Minnesota until P'lS. 



