42 Wild Bird Guests 



on the road near the Park brought me a dying 

 hermit thrush which he thought had been 

 injured in this way. 



Then civilized man is chiefly responsible, 

 either directly or indirectly, for the terrible 

 forest fires, which not only destroy the homes 

 and food supply of millions of birds, but at 

 times, as in the nesting season, must cause the 

 immediate destruction of all young birds within 

 the burning area and probably many of the old 

 ones as well. Perhaps even greater destruction 

 is wrought by the great autumn fires, which 

 lure hosts of migrants to their doom. They 

 become bewildered and fall into the flames. 

 Not long ago, Mr. Nathan C. Schaeffer, Super- 

 intendent of Public Instruction, made an earnest 

 appeal to the school children of Pennsylvania 

 for help in the prevention of forest fires. He 

 pointed out many of the evils of such fires and 

 among them the fact that they destroy "all 

 the birds' nests and their eggs and the young 

 birds." 



Of course much of this destruction is not to 

 be avoided. We must clear the land in order 

 that we may have farms and cities; we must 

 drain the marshes for the same reason and as a 

 matter of public health, and the lighthouses, 

 telegraph wires, and fences follow as a matter of 



