THE OOLOOIST. 



171 



the world as any other class of natural 

 history students, and without doubt 

 has done more towards shaping the 

 ultimate course of ornithological in- 

 vestigation among the men who have 

 made a name in that science than any 

 other single element we know of. 

 Nearly all of them started out in early 

 life as collectors of birds eggs, and in 

 that pursuit learned the necessity of 

 careful painstaking accurrate obser- 

 vation and record keeping, which has 

 followed them throughout life, and has 

 stored the pages of American Orni- 

 thological literature with the vast 

 quantity of valuable information now 

 accessible therein. 



THE ILLINOIS WAY! 



HUNTERS MAY MAKE $2.50 DAY. 



State Game Warden Wants Wild Fowl 



Captured Alive to Restock 



Farm. 



L. C. Heim, of Marine, Madison 

 county game warden, has given notice 

 that he will hire for the state any 

 hunters who will capture alive and un- 

 injured wild ducks to be put on the 

 state game farm at Auburn. Mr. 

 Heim states that he was authorized 

 by the state game commissioner, J. 

 A. Wheeler, to make the offer of good 

 wages to hunters who would enter 

 the state's employ. The game com- 

 missioner said that the entire stock of 

 vi^ild ducks at the game farm had been 

 drowned. The ducks, Mr. Wheeler 

 said, had been deprived of water for 

 swimming so long that they had de- 

 generated, and when freshets came re- 

 cently and swelled the creeks and 

 ponds the ducks, having lost their abil- 

 ity to swin, were drowned. They could 

 not produce the natural oil that water- 

 proofs a duck's feathers. It has been 

 found necessary to replenish the stock 

 for breeding purposes. Mr. Heim 



said that any hunter could earn $2.50' 

 a day. The ducks must be trapped or 

 snared without wounding them. 



The foregoing is clipped from an 

 Illinois paper and shows the manner 

 in which the Illinois tax payer is 

 flim-flammed out of his money. Of 

 course during a season of drouth the 

 tax payer should believe that the duck 

 would in a few weeks lose its ability 

 to swim. Also that its system would 

 cease to produce the natural oil for 

 . water-proofing its feathers. If we are 

 not in error, all natural history re- 

 search shows that birds of all fami- 

 lies, including the duck tribe, lose 

 tlrese natural instincts and attain- 

 ments when deprived of their ordinary 

 surroundings for a few weeks. How- 

 ever if the Illinois tax payer is will- 

 ing to swallow the foregoing, we pre- 

 sume that we can stand it; but we 

 take this kind of "dope" as a citizen of 

 Illinois and as one whose money with 

 other inhabitants of the state is being 

 squandered in the above manner as 

 the small boy took the straddle bug — 

 net as a matter of choice, but as a 

 matter of have to. And the ducks 

 were drowned? 



Tlioiiiili !>nctlipr rc-iry claim iht^ 

 iTidil I'er ilial rpcdrd piplai' irip. Hi,- 

 fellow wild deserve;^ it .•ind i lie inaii 

 wlio look tlu' skip is .Misilier l>n()lH' . 



Zf-ppeiiii l»*\i;iiis at the lowest line in 

 the alphabet, but the iiiau hlni.-<elf is 

 very near ibe to|» letter class in hi>! 

 trade. 



That word "dactyiolographs" should 



be submitted to tiie siiniiiitied spelling 



board before it is tried on typewriter 

 girls. 



In suitably Iionoriiig the nieniory of 

 Victor Hugo i)resent day Pari.sjans 

 draw honor upon themselves. 



