THEIR ECONOMIC RELATIONS TO THE AGRICULTURIST 21 



worthy of most careful protection. What fisherman, wading a 

 wooded stream, or Nature-lover idling on the bank of a secluded 

 pond,' has not been delighted by the flashing colors of these beau- 

 tiful birds as they leave the water, startled at the approach of an 

 alien, or entranced as they disport themselves in sylvan pool, quite 

 unconscious of the admiring glances they invite! 



Dr. P. L. Hatch, in his notes on the birds of Minnesota, 1892. 

 voicing his enthusiasm over this duck, breaks into song as fol- 

 lows : "The most truthful and esthetic description of the mature 

 male could reach no nearer the limning reality than the coldest 

 prose could paint the rainbow. Science, after all her most impos- 

 ing assumptions, would sit down and weep before the task in 

 black despair. The impotence of all attempts has smirched the 

 skirts of hope by what has been essayed in its systematic, as well 

 as its vernacular nomenclature. Aix sponsa! Shades of Linnaeus, 

 weep cold, clammy tears for thine irremedial dereliction! Wood 

 Duck ! Summer Duck !" 



Unlike the majority of ducks, these birds breed in hollo^v 

 trees overhanging the water. They are typically North Ameri- 

 can, ranging from Florida to Hudson Bay, but wintering far to 

 the south of our most southern borders. Protected in Minnesota 

 until 1918. 



THE GOLDEN PLOVER. 



A bird also uncommon, in that it is here irregularly during 

 the migrations remaining with us only a short time, and now, we 

 believe, rapidly disappearing. The illustration is given here as 

 representing the type, one of which — the Ring-Neck — was dis- 



