THE OOLOGIST 



105 



really too excited to count them as 

 these were my first Swans In the wild 

 state. Of course the species was im- 

 possible to determine as they only 

 stayed in view a few minutes. The 

 birds apparently wanted to light but 

 the lake was entirely frozen over. 



One of the natives here says that 

 this is the first time he has ever seen 

 Swans in the spring of the year, al- 

 though in the fall oftentimes they 

 light on the lake for a short rest, and 

 sometimes an overnight stay. 



I thought that a flock of Swans of 

 this size should be recorded. 



Carl F. Wright, 

 "Camp Mishike," Winchester, 

 Vilas County, Wis. 

 April 21, 1923. 



BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER GOING 

 THE PASSENGER PIGEON ROUTE 



The time has come when laws must 

 be enforced or this bird will be 

 spoken of in bird articles just like the 

 Passenger Pigeon is today. 



The automobile is the birds' enemy. 



A few years ago when none but the 

 rich could own a car the birds had a 

 chance as the hunters would hunt 

 them in buggies. Now every one 

 that could afford a horse a few 

 years ago owns a car today. So the 

 Plovers have no chance because a 

 Tin Lizzie can be on top of a bunch 

 of them before they can take flight. 

 Also the automatic has come into play 

 in the destruction of bird life, instead 

 of a hunter killing one bird or maybe 

 two when they flew up, he kills, that 

 is if he is a good shot, three or four 

 birds before they get out of shooting 

 distance. 



One hunter told me of a hunt he 

 and a friend had a few days ago a 

 few miles south of Ft. Worth on the 

 rolling prairies. For one hour's 

 straight run over the prairie the en- 

 gine never stopped and their auto- 



matic barrels got hot. They killed 68 

 and no telling how many they wound- 

 ed. Left to die on the prairie. 



That's killing more than one a 

 minute and this kind of hunting was 

 going on all around Ft. Worth during 

 April and goes on every year, so how 

 long do you expect the Plover to last? 

 Ramon Graham, 

 Texas Bird Notes, 1923. 



Who are the State and Federal Game 

 Wardens at Fort Worth and vicinity, 

 that permit such slaughter. They 

 should be removed and real ones ap- 

 pointed.— R. M. Barnes. 



SPARROW HAWK'S BILL OF FARE 



After preparing the skin of a Spar- 

 row Hawk (Falco sparverius sparver- 

 ius) which I collected near Goodyear, 

 Solano County, this winter I examined 

 the stomach contents and found this 

 organ to contain in addition to other 

 material a snake a full eight inches in 

 length in perfect condition and in its 

 entirety except that the head had been 

 dismembered and somewhat crushed, 

 which dismemberment was no doubt 

 done by the bird before swallowing. 

 1 sent the snake to the University of 

 California and Professor Storer ad- 

 vised me that this reptile was a 

 gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer),a 

 young individual possibly of last 

 year's brood. 



The other contents of this stomach 

 consisted of two whole crickets, two 

 large whole beetles, an angle worm, 

 and remains broken up and partly di- 

 gested of a number of crustaceous 

 and aquatic insects. In fact this 

 Hawk, a female, had so fully gorged 

 herself that the snake literally popped 

 out at me when the stomach burst 

 open after I had touched my knife to 

 it. 



Emerson A. Stoner, 

 March 15, 1923. Benicia, Calif. 



