THE OOLOGIST 



195 



ting around watching the .old birds, I 

 have found them very unsuspicious. 

 Don't seem to pay any attention to a 

 person on the ground. 



At times I have seen both birds 

 perched on a limb very close togeth- 

 er and twittering to one another. 

 Evidently making love or talking over 

 domestic affairs. Next season, if my 

 two pairs return, I intend to try and 

 get a tew photos if possible. 



R. B. Simpson. 



WOODPECKERS. 



The Forestry service of the United 

 States has recently issued a circular 

 relating to the damage to telegraph 

 and telephone poles occasioned by the 

 Woodpeckers. It advises that the birds 

 be not in,iured or Idlled, and reports 

 creosote-treated poles are not attack- 

 ed by the birds. 



The woodpecker family is one of the 

 most beneficial of all bird families. 

 Without them there would be no need 

 for a Forestry service for there would 

 be no forests. These birds do more 

 to preserve the forests of the country 

 than all the forest experts on the gov- 

 ernment pay roll; many times over. 

 Protect these birds by all means, and 

 tell the Railway and telegraph people 

 to use a little common sense and erect 

 galvanized iron poles set in concrete 

 in the country, and to put their wires 

 underground where they belong, in 

 towns and cities. 



Our woodpeckers are far and away 

 more valuable that the average cor- 

 poration director imagines. Protect 

 the birds. 



BIRDS OF ILLINOIS 



AND WISCONSIN. 



Birds of Illinois and Wisconsin. 



We are in receipt of this publication 

 issued by the Field Museum of Natural 

 History written by Charles B. Corey, 

 the Curator of the Department of 

 Birds of this Museum. 



It is a large portly volume of over 

 750 pages- and- is divided into three 

 general sub-di visions: 



1. A Bibliography covering this re- 

 gion. M ' . . '- ■• 



2. One of the best Bird Keys that 

 has ever come under our observation. 



3. A list of the birds found in these 

 two states with appropriate remarks, 

 citations and references; the whole 

 emblished with a very large number of 

 cuts and plates, many of them of - 

 very high merit. 



This work will take rank at once as 

 the leading work on the birds of these 

 two states, and will remain in that 

 position for many long years, is our 

 judgment. 



The preparation of this book shows 

 not only the well-known knowledge of 

 Professor Carey, of birds, but likewise 

 his exceedingly painstaking and care- 

 ful collation of the information obtain- 

 able only as the result of long careful 

 correspondence and acquaintance with 

 bird students in the two states cover- 

 ed. It is a production which will be 

 welcomed by the ornithologists of the 

 West as well as by the ordinary read- 

 er; for while it is of high scientific 

 value, it is by no means the dry pro- 

 lix assemblage of latin names so dis- 

 tasteful to all except the professional 

 ornithologists. 



Duck shooting along the Illinois riv- 

 er has been better this Fall than for 

 several years. We have been expect- 

 ing our den to be illuminated almost 

 any day by the smiling "phiz" of our 

 friend B. F. Gault, the well-known or- 

 nithologist. He has a habit of know- 

 ing where and when to look for ducks, 

 and in times past has tried the shoot- 

 ing here. 



A male European widgeon was kill- 

 ed by one of the prominent Chicago 

 judges on the Swan Lake Club 

 grounds last Spring, nine miles north 

 of the present home of THE OOLO- 

 GIST. 



