14 Wild Bird Guests 



on the ground. Some years ago at Stamford, 

 Connecticut, I had under observation several 

 nests of song sparrows and other birds in a low- 

 lying meadow. I went down there one morning 

 after several days of heavy rain, and found the 

 meadow, nests and all, under water. Some 

 of the nests had contained newly hatched young 

 and the parents were still flitting about among 

 the bushes nearby, calling incessantly. 



More dramatic, if much less serious, is the 

 destruction wrought by the great waterfalls 

 which every year take their toll of aquatic birds. 

 Every spring many birds, chiefly ducks, geese, 

 and swans go over the Horse-Shoe Falls at 

 Niagara. Some of these are killed outright, 

 but many of them are only stunned and might 

 easily be saved. In 1912 one hundred and forty 

 whistling swans went over the falls in this way, 

 and were fished out by boys and men, knocked 

 on the head and sold for food to people in Ni- 

 agara Falls. Most of the birds were secured by 

 a young man employed at the Maid of the Mist 

 landing, who, living in a little house close to the 

 water, was always on the watch. With Mr. James 

 Savage of Buffalo I went to see this young man 

 the following spring and he told us that the birds 

 almost always came over at night. Far above the 

 falls the water is smooth and here the birds 



