ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 35 



kept baited at all times, so when no one is there to pull the 

 string's, they serve simply as feeding stations and the birds 

 grow used to getting their meals easily and come back for more. 

 "After a season's experience it is believed that this plan of 

 trap has been the most successful all through the whole year. 

 Certainly for any one who is just beginning it is very simple 

 and the best feature is that it can be worked as little or as much 

 as one desires." 



The writer visited Mr. Lyon one bright morning this last 

 October, and watched the operation of both the self-acting 

 traps and the sieve traps worked by pulls. Within an hour 

 Mr. Lyon trapped 2? visitors, Fox Sparrows and White-throats. 

 Seven of these were "repeaters." They had been band- 

 ed before, and their experience had not deterred them from re- 

 visiting the scene of their adventure. It seemed easy to cap- 

 ture birds in the very simple device of the sieve trap. It requires 

 only that one watch the trap and pull the string at the psycho- 

 logical moment. 



The latest report received from Mr. Lyon as this number 

 was being sent to the printer indicated unusual success with 

 his tree traps. He had thus far banded 21 Chickadees, 5 

 Downy Woodpeckers, and a large number of Tree Sparrows. He 

 had also banded 4 White-breasted Nuthatches which had hopped 

 into a sieve trap on the ground. 



J. L. S. 



A New Lake ana a New Sanctuary 



From Decatur, Illinois, comes the news that the near comple- 

 tion of an important civic undertaking which is of great con- 

 cern to that city because of its significance for sanitation and 

 industrial purpose is anticipated with heightened interest by 

 nature lovers generally for its possibilities in the way of an ar- 

 boretum and bird sanctuary. Mr. C. A. Wait of the Decatur 

 Review has kindly furnished us with the following data : 



"Decatur, Illinois, has completed within the last month a 

 water impounding dam which will create a lake of 4,000 acres 

 immediately south and east of that city of 45,000 population. 

 While the lake has been created primarily to insure the water 

 supply of the city by damming* the Sangamon river and flooding 

 the area of the basin to the extent noted, there has already been 

 started a vigorous movement in the community for the estab- 

 lishment of a bird sanctuary on this lake for the migratory water 

 fowl. The lake will have a total length of about thirteen miles 

 and will vary in width from three quarters of a mile down to the 

 original channel of the river. 



"The construction of the dam will cost the city about a mil- 

 lion dollars and the purchase of the land, the raising of the 

 bridges and bridge approaches have cost almost exactly another 

 million. It is part of the city plan to create driveways and park 



