18 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



each farm was producing an annual yield that completely 

 eclipsed all previous efforts. Today, for example, the 

 three New York State farms raise for distribution from 

 ten to twenty thousand young pheasants yearly and send 

 to applicants from 200,000 to 500,000 eggs to be hatched 

 under hens and liberated in the coverts. The effect has 

 been marvelous and today the pheasant is the most abun- 

 dant upland game bird in most parts of the state. 



The reason is threefold. First, we have taken full 



those males) can be shot in a season. So successful has 

 this artificial propagation been that the annual output 

 from the game farms and the natural increase of the birds 

 in the coverts more than balances the annual kill and the 

 birds continue to increase while the hunters continue to 

 enjoy good sport. 



When other birds can be raised with equal success, we 



A FOSTER-MOTHER AND HER BROOD OP YOUNG WOOD DUCKS 



The wood duck is the most ornamental of the American waterfowl and does 

 very well in captivity. It has been successfully bred in an ordinary city yard. 



advantage of the great reproductive capacity of the birds 

 and have protected them against all kinds of enemies. 

 Secondly, the birds are put into the coverts, not as adults, 

 but either when two-thirds grown or as chicks with the 

 hen, and have formed an attachment to the spot where 

 released before maturing. And thirdly, proper restrictions 

 of the shooting have been enforced. The season is opened 

 for but four days during the fall and only three birds (and 



A COLONY OF PURPLE MARTINS 



These are the largest of our swallows. The many chambered house is placed 

 on a pole seventeen feet from the ground. Birds have occupied this house for 

 twenty years. 



need have no further fear of the extermination of our game. 

 The passenger pigeon and the Labrador duck are irrevoc- 

 ably gone, but the heath hen, which was following them, 

 has been saved in time. Great hope is now entertained for 

 the recovery of all other species, and thus the game will be 

 brought back to our country. 



THE SWALLOWS 



(Family Hirundinidae) 



PERHAPS no family of birds is better known or more 

 easily recognized than the swallows. Numbering 

 about one hundred species, they are found all over 

 the world, thirty-five of them being American, although 

 only nine are found in the United States and Canada. All 

 the swallows have long pointed wings and trim bodies, 

 which, together with their trustfulness about the abodes 

 of man, make them the symbol of grace, and favorites 

 with every nation. 



Six species of swallows occur in eastern United States 

 and Canada, four of which, the purple martin, and the 

 barn, cliff and tree swallows, are primarily blue, and two, 

 the bank, and rough-winged species, are brown. Of the 

 blue swallows, the purple martin is the largest. The male 



is entirely blue above and below, while the female is blue 

 above with a gray breast. Martins nest in colonies in 

 houses provided for them or in gourds raised on poles 

 (See American Forestry, March 1916). Thebamswallow 

 is considerably smaller than the purple martin, and has 

 orange-brown underparts. It is easily recognized by its 

 long forked tail which makes it very similar to the common 

 swallow of Europe appearing so often in art and literature. 

 Its familiar cup-shaped nest is built of mud and straw, 

 lined with feathers, and attached to the rafters of the barn. 

 The cliff swallow is often found about the same barn but 

 it makes a gourd-shaped nest and fastens it beneath the 

 eaves. This gives it the common name of "eave swallow" 

 in many places, and it is easily distinguished from the barn 



