BIRDS OF NEW YORK 35 



are more or less covered with forest growth. The author has seen one 

 heronry after another disappear in western New York through the draining 

 of swamps, and the Wood duck and the Woodcock, as well as the other 

 members of that community, must necessarily disappear as their coverts 

 are destroyed. An examination of the health of people living along the 

 margins of the Montezuma marsh and the Potter swamp reveals the fact 

 that malaria is practically unknown, and the claim so often made by com- 

 panies who wish to have the State drain such extensive marshes, that 

 they are unhealthy in their influence, can not be sustained. The mos- 

 quitoes bred in such places are undoubtedly annoying to visitors in these 

 districts, but the mosquitoes certainly do not spread the malaria unless 

 the malarial parasite is present. However, we expect to see most of the 

 swamps and marshes disappear, but we hope that a few will be preserved, 

 at least about the Seneca river, the Hudson, and the shores of Lake 

 Ontario, which will be preserves for marsh birds in centuries to come. 



Pasturing. In many of the bird books one finds the expression that 

 this or that species is " common on hillside pastures," and the ease with 

 which the bird student walks over the unencumbered ground and examines 

 the edges of the bushy tracts for favorite species has given the impression 

 that pastures are favorable habitats for many birds. A more careful 

 study of the situation reveals the fact that not only most of the grassland 

 species are driven from the land by pasturing, partly because their nests 

 are frequently trod upon by the pasturing animals, but also because the 

 cover which protects the nesting birds is destroyed and they are obliged 

 to seek more grassy fields outside the pasture. Furthermore, the principal 

 harm of pasturing, to the bird life, is found in the destruction of ground 

 cover which inevitably results in woods and thickets. This is especially 

 noticeable in sheep pastures where all the vegetation is destroyed to 

 a height of three or four feet above the ground. In such pasture land 

 the thickets and undergrowth, which usually support an abundant bird 

 life, are eliminated and the birds must seek other coverts. When we 

 consider how fev/ woodlands in the more cultivated portions of the State 



