18 ANIMAL LIFE IN OKLAHOMA. 



frequent Oklahoma every year. Wild geese were once much more 

 abundant than they are now, and while they do yet fly over the State in 

 numbers, they seldom come down except in most inaccessible retreats, 

 and it is a "red letter day" for the hunter who succeeds in bagging one 

 of these birds. The towering form of the sandhill crane is sometimes 

 seen along the larger streams, but its noble cousin, the whooping crane, 

 has ceased to visit us. The great blue heron was never abundant here 

 and its numbers now are very limited. However, we occasionally see 

 this stilt-legged bird, with many of its small relatives, wading about the 

 shallow ponds in search of crayfish and frogs. Its long beak makes 

 it a dreaded hunter of the small streams, but Oklahoma will be the poorer 

 if this ungainly but interesting bird ever disappears altogether from our 

 shores. 



CROWS. 



Crows are a bad lot. They have a record of misdeeds almost as 

 inky black as the coats they wear. Before the planting of grain fields 

 gave them an unlimited food supply they were never numerous, but 

 now they occur in numbers so large as to infiict heavy damage on the 

 farmer in many sections of the State. Their fondness for sprouting 

 corn is responsible for much of the trouble which they cause, but this is 

 not all. Crows destroy large numbers of bird nests in the spring, and 

 do not hesitate to feed the squawking fledglings to their own young. 

 They come down in clouds on cane and kaffir fields and strip the heads 

 before they can be gathered. This rapidly increasing multitude of 

 destroyers presents a problem which will sooner or later have to be met. 

 The crow has few natural enemies and is far too wise to be poisoned 

 by the usual methods. A bounty is placed on their heads in many 

 states, and this will probably soon be done in Oklahoma. 



ENGLISH SPARROWS. 



It is impossible to say anything too unkind about the English 

 sparrow. There are few places in the State where this bird does not 

 occur, and it is multiplying five times as rapidly as any other bird in 

 North America. This bird is everywhere displacing the native birds, 

 and is an invariable source of inconvenience about watering places and 

 buildings. The English sparrow is not beautiful, cannot sing, and lives 

 almost entirely on the hospitality of the farm. iSTo one should lightly 

 condemn a bird, but this one unquestionably deserves to die. These 

 sparrows are gregarious in habit and can easily be poisoned in large 

 numbers, so that any farm or city can entirely rid itself of these peste 

 in one winter if it will only learn the methods and apply them. 



SONG BIRDS. 



Oklahoma is rich in the number and variety of her song birds. 

 The larger part of these are, of course, migratory^ and so remain here 

 only a part of the year, but they make the woods merry juvith their 

 songs from earlj spring until the horde of destructive insects is killed 



