16 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
nearest streams and ponds. The peasants often place 
cartwheels on the gables, where the storks use them as 
convenient foundations for nests. The same birds 
have been known to return to the same house for 
many successive years. Not all birds can be accus- 
tomed to live near man. The black stork of Europe 
is still the wild bird of the fens and moors. I have 
several times found its nest in lonely moorland forests, 
where it was built on tall pines that were almost 
inaccessible even to an enthusiastic boy. Where the 
white stork built when its present range was covered 
by the vast, gloomy forests which Cesar and Tacitus 
describe, I do not know. 
Much missionary work has still to be done before we 
may hope to protect .large, conspicuous birds. A 
German proverb says: “The fools never become ex- 
tinct,” but I hope that schools, educative societies, law, 
and police may in the near future practically exter- 
minate the bird-destroying variety.1 
Although this little book is principally concerned 
with. song birds, I cannot pass the opportunity of 
saying a few words on other wild creatures ; — for who 
would like to have all the wild Indian romance hunted 
and driven away from our marshes and woods? A 
lake, where you may chance upon a stately heron, 
surprise a beautiful wood duck, or espy a flock of wild, 
honking geese, is always full of charm and virile in- 
spiration ; but what man or woman, boy or gil, is 
1See Hatch, ‘‘ Birds of Minnesota,’? on herons on Crane Island, in 
Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota. 
