THE OOLOGI8T 



107 



GAME LAWS 



We have recently received informa- 

 tion that the Provincial Government 

 of Saskatchewan, Canada, has re- 

 laxed the game laws of the Province 

 "Making it legal for farmers to shoot 

 out of season Wild Ducks which are 

 damaging the crops." And also a 

 statement that many reports have 

 been received from parts over that 

 Province that the birds are causing 

 much havoc in the grain fields. 



Recently a paper at Peoria, Illinois 

 published a silly scare headed inter- 

 view with an alleged farmer, reciting 

 that the Wild Ducks along the Illinois 

 river have become so plentiful and 

 tame this season that they are eat- 

 ing up great quantities of his corn in 

 the field and unless relief came soon 

 he would have to kill a few thousand 

 of the web-footed Crows with a club. 



All of which is silly bunk and propa- 

 ganda, pure and simple. A few thous- 

 and Ducks scattered over the millions 

 of acres of Canadian wheat will do no 

 appreciable damage and no farmer 

 who is fit to be called such has any 

 corn in the field in Illinois in Aprii. 

 This sporadic veiled attack upon the 

 wild fowl eminates from that debases 

 portion of humanity who are paying to 

 see these birds increasing as the re 

 suit of the elimination of spring shoot- 

 ing and worse fingers itch to pull the 

 trigger every time they oberve the 

 growing confidence and tameness of 

 the Ducks migrating at the .season 

 which in the vicinity of Lacon, where 

 there are now thousands of migrat- 

 ing birds on the river, frequen'ly goes 

 to the extent of the wild birds sitting 

 quietly and permitting a continuous 

 auto traffic to pass within from thirty 

 to one hundred feet of them withiat 

 the slightest uneasiness or alarm. 



The originators of this effort to kill 

 Ducks out of season are the class who 

 think murder and blood shed every 



time the see a hen Mallard winging 

 her way North carrying from ten to 

 fifteen eggs, most of which will late 

 in the fall be healthy, vigorous birds. 

 Their desire to exterminate the 

 mother, the eggs and the prospective 

 flock of fall birds with one pot hot, in 

 March, April or May outweighs their 

 conscience (if they ever had one) and 

 gives rise to an imaginary reason why 

 they should be allowed so to do, in- 

 cluding statements that the Ducks 

 have become so numerous that they 

 are pulling up all of the wheat in the 

 vast Dominion of Canada, and ate up 

 last year's corn crop in the Illinois 

 fields in April. 



We trust the Game Department of 

 Saskatchewan will rescind this or- 

 der. It is my opinion the door for 

 lawful violation of a splendid law 

 should be enforced — R. M. B. 



THE PILEATED WOODPECKER 



As the editor wishes us to write our 

 experiences of different kinds of birds, 

 I will write what I have learned about 

 the Pileated this year, with the good 

 luck I had taking these eggs. I have 

 had a good chance to learn something 

 about them I never knew before. I 

 began to locate these nesting sites 

 about the first of April. I had always 

 taken full sets by the 4th to 10th of 

 April until this year. My first take 

 was the 15th I think, and now today, 

 the 24th, I've taken my 12th set and 

 look to get that many more. I first 

 began to climb trees when the bird 

 would fly out of the hole thinking I 

 would get a set of eggs, but no eggs. 

 I always had to chip out a little of the 

 upper part of the hole to get my hand 

 in, then I thought the bird would quit 

 the nest but I found out when passing 

 a week later, when I rapped on the 

 tree, the bird would stick her head 

 out and the next rap she would fly 

 out and if she returned in a few 



