60 



THE OOLOGIST 3iC^^^^^^ 



DISGRACEFULLY. 



The manner of enforcement or lack 

 of enforcement of the Federal Migra- 

 tory Bird Law in the Illinois Valley 

 this season has been a disgrace to the 

 administration as well as the Govern- 

 ment. It has been violated, publicly, 

 openly, notoriously, and continuously, 

 with impunity. Men have come from 

 all parts of the country on the trains, 

 bringing with them openly, all manner 

 of hunting paraphernalia, have gone 

 into the towns and hired rowers and 

 pushers and boats, and decoys with- 

 out let or hindrance, and have slaugh- 

 tered the wild fowl by the thousands. 

 Many have been so proud of their 

 success at this murderous poaching 

 that their scores have been published 

 in the local papers as though they had 

 accomplished something beneficial as 

 well as truly wonderful. 



In the vicinity of the home of The 

 Oologist in the mornings, the whole 

 valley would echo for miles with the 

 bombardment being carried on along 

 the river against the ducks. All of 

 which tends to bring the govermnent, 

 the administration and all law into 

 public disrepute. Better by far that 

 we have no law on the subject than 

 that it be administered in the manner 

 in which it is at present, because it 

 has been the observation of the Editor 

 that the violation of one law with im- 

 punity leads some malefactors fre- 

 quently to violate other laws, some- 

 times with far more serious and 

 dangerous results. 



The Gun Clubs, game butchers and 

 law violaters are alive every day in 

 the year in their efforts to repeal, 

 emasculate or violate this statute, and 

 it behooves those of our population 

 who desire to prevent the wild fowl 

 of the North American continent from 

 following the Buffalo, Wild Pigeon 

 and Paraquet into extinction; to do 

 something to impress upon the vio- 



lators of this Statute that the Statute 

 really means what it says or else we 

 should abandon our pretensions, and 

 publicly confess the impotency of the 

 government in this respect. 



So far as the Editor is advised, there 

 has not been a single conviction, 

 prosecution or even effort at enforce- 

 ment in this territory during the pres- 

 ent season, save one. Men of appar- 

 ent respectability and standing as 

 well as common river rats have 

 slaughtered game without let or hin- 

 drance in the face of the Federal Act, 

 and so far as numbers are concerned, 

 in defiance of the State law; and have 

 sold it openly with impunity. All of 

 which we respectively submit is a 

 disgrace. R. M, Barnes. 



THE BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. 



Reading several times in the Oolo- 

 gist of the case with which the Black- 

 billed Cuckoo abandons its nest caused 

 me some surprise during the late sum- 

 mer of 1916. On the 2nd of August T 

 flushed a Black-bill from her nest and 

 within the city limits of Ravinia in 

 two eggs in a patch of oak brush 

 Lake Co., Illinois. I picked up an egg 

 to examine and in doing so a twig 

 snapped it from between my fingers. 

 This was disastrous to my temper, for 

 I was in need of a set of these eggs. 

 Although I knew the nest would be 

 deserted I left the remaining egg and 

 visited the nest again on the 7th, when 

 to my surprise the female was found 

 to be covering a nice set of four eggs. 



The foregoing was in direct con- 

 trast to a nest of the Black-billed 

 Cuckoo I found on July 31, 1916. In 

 this case the nest was discovered 

 when it contained four eggs, but as I 

 wasn't positive whether they belonged 

 to the black or yellow-billed variety 

 I left them with the idea of coming 

 back the next day and catching the 

 owner on the nest. Accordingly I re- 



