No. 123.] DIVISION OF ORNITHOLOGY. 71 



America, they will continue to kill song-birds. There are not 

 wardens enough to protect the birds and there never will be. 

 All we can hope to do is to educate the children of foreigners 

 so that they will not follow in the footsteps of their fathers. 

 People who feed birds complain that chickadees and other little 

 birds that come to their feeding stations are killed or their legs 

 broken by small boys with air guns. We must teach our own 

 children to care for the birds, to feed them and to put up 

 nesting boxes for them. No boy who has become interested in 

 caring for birds will be guilty of using them for targets. 



How THE Wood Duck gets her Young to the Water. 



Ten years ago the Wood Duck, the most beautiful of Amer- 

 ican ducks, was in danger of extinction. Since that time under 

 protective laws it has begun to increase in numbers, but as 

 its chances in many regions are still somewhat precarious, any 

 fact in regard to its life history will be of interest. 



The Wood Duck nests often at a considerable distance from 

 water, sometimes in swamps or dense woods; often close 

 thickets lie between the nest and the water. As it nests in 

 hollow trees and sometimes at a considerable height from the 

 ground, the manner in which its young reaches the water has 

 been a subject of dispute. Many years ago, when Wood 

 Ducks were abundant, stories were told to the effect that the 

 bird carried its young to the water. Such tales still persist in 

 many parts of the United States and Canada, but, like the 

 legend of the hoop snake, parental transportation of its young 

 by the Wood Duck has come to be regarded by some naturalists 

 as a myth. 



During the past year investigation has been made to deter- 

 mine how the young WoocJ Ducks actually reach the water. 

 The first record noted was that of Alexander Wilson, the "father 

 of American ornithology," who says that he visited a tree con- 

 taining a nest of the Wood Duck near the shore of the Tuck- 

 ahoe River, New Jersey. It was in an old oak, the top of 

 which had been torn off by a storm and which stood on the 

 declivity of a bank about 20 yards from the water. The nest 

 was in the hollow, broken trunk of the tree about 6 feet down 



