94 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ers have been known to actually fire at them, thinking 

 until too late, that they were ducks. 



About trout streams or artificial ponds, where valu- 

 able fish are being raised, the kingfisher is sometimes 

 quite destructive to the young fish. It is therefore not 

 protected by law. In most places, however, the fish 

 taken are minnows or suckers or others of little or no 

 commercial value. The kingfisher is far too picturesque 



a bird to warrant wholesale destruction. Even the most 

 earless gunners and the most inveterate fishermen seem 

 to have a wholesome, friendly interest in this little pirate 

 of the stream, so that relatively few are shot for the 

 mere sake of killing. It is probably for this reason, 

 in addition to its wariness, that it is still a common bird 

 wherever there are suitable conditions for food and 

 nesting. 



FOOD CONSERVATION 

 * IN BIRDLAND 



BY H. A. ZIMMERMAN 



HP HE question of food waste 

 -*- has become a vitally serious 

 one since the great war began. 

 Even the churches have been call- 

 ed upon to urge economy in food, 

 and can it be possible that the 

 birds are going to set us an ex- 

 ample in this line? Judging 

 from the picture it would seem 

 so. We are at a loss to under- 

 stand why this mother thrasher 

 should thrust her head so far 

 into her baby's mouth unless she 

 fears that some of the precious 

 morsel she is feeding her should 

 fall to the ground and be lost. 

 At any rate the mother is mak- 

 ing sure that the worm will 

 reach the right spot. It will be noticed that the baby has a 



No, 



IS IT A LITTLE SUFFRAGETTE? 



the mother bird did not discover traits of latent militancy and this is not the end of a "hunger 

 strike" it is merely her usual breakfast of a fat, wiggly worm. 



pretty capacious "take-in" for one so young. 



DUCK FUTURES 



TN NORTHERN New Mexico, on the Jicarilla- Apache 



Indian Reservation, there is a beautiful mountain lake, 

 which the Indians have named Stinking Lake by reason 

 of gases given off by a nearby mineral spring. 



This lake is a great breeding ground for ducks and 

 other wildfowl. It has been called "the greatest natural 

 wonder in New Mexico ;" 7,000 pairs of birds are said 

 to nest there. A large proportion of the ducks which 

 migrate northward and southward along the Rio Grande 

 and the Rio Pecos are raised at Stinking Lake. 



The New Mexico Game Protective Association wants 

 this lake set aside and developed as a National Bird 

 Refuge, to be used for all time as a great breeding 

 ground for the birds which supply the citizens of New 

 Mexico and Texas with pleasure and healthful sport. 

 They regard it as a public "duck factory." 



Comes now the Jicarilla "Sanctuary" Association, an 

 organization composed of wealthy Coloradoans, and asks 

 that the lake be leased to them by the U. S. Indian 

 Service as a private shooting club. 



A Bird Refuge and a shooting club are mutually ex- 

 clusive. The lake can not be used for both purposes. 

 "Who is the best man?" Both parties are doing their 

 best to promptly decide this question. 



The controversy clearly involves the elementary prin- 

 ciple that superlative natural wonders should remain 

 in public control. To the degree in which New Mexico 

 derives her wildfowl from this lake it also involves the 

 principle that monopoly in sources of raw material, 

 whether that material be coal, water power, or ducks, 

 will in the long run prove incompatible with the public 

 interest. No statement of charitable intention, as im- 

 plied by the name "Sanctuary," and no eminence of char- 

 acter on the part of the membership of this shooting club, 

 can cloud the fact that these principles are at stake. 



The cropping up of this issue in the field of wild life con- 

 servation leads to the hope that it will be fought out there 

 to a prompt decision. We recommend to the Commission- 

 er of Indian Affairs, and to the U. S. Biological Survey, 

 that they decide this controversy with their eyes open. 



