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 Caesar 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 girl, is 



1 See Hatch, " Birds of Minnesota," on herons on Crane Island, in 

 Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota. 



