130 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



Fowl Pond than they attracted the deadly atten- 

 tion of an old crow, also nesting in the Park, with a 

 nestful of young of her own to maintain. She 

 began feeding those ducklings to her brood, and her 

 industry soon became appalling. After the sixth 

 duckling had been swept into that corvine vortex, it 

 became painfully evident that we must choose 

 between one brood of crows and about one hundred 

 ducklings. It became our painful duty to order 

 the destruction of that crow; which was done; and 

 her nestlings were taken and reared by hand. That 

 was the first and last occasion on which we 

 ever found it necessary to sign a death warrant 

 returnable against a crow. Crows may easily be 

 kept out of a cornfield by erecting a scarecrow 

 representing a man with a gun. 



Concerning the fruit-eating habits of a number 

 of our most valuable insectivorous birds, there is 

 one way out of the difficulty that is obvious, but 

 very, very rarely carried into effect. It consists 

 in the planting of a few Russian mulberry and 

 sweet-cherry trees on every farm, especially for the 

 birds. For four years, State Game Commissioner 

 John M. Phillips, of Pittsburgh, has been educat- 

 ing the people of Carrick, Pennsylvania, old and 

 young, into this method of attracting birds, and 

 providing for their needs. The fruit of the Russian 

 mulberry is greatly liked by birds, and it ripens 

 continuously throughout four months of the year. 



