NATURAL HISTORY. 



225 



WHY HAVE THE GEESE CHANGED THEIR 

 FLIGHT? 



West Liberty, Ohio. 

 Editor Recreation: 



From my earliest recollection up to 10 

 years ago this particular section of Mad 

 River valley was the feeding and loafing 

 ground of thousands of wild geese. Dur- 

 ing the early spring and fall thousands at 

 a time could be seen feeding among the 

 big herds of cattle or out in the middle of 

 the big grain fields, meadows or wet prai- 

 rie lands, where they could not be reached 

 by the hunters and were seldom disturbed. 

 I have known the young birds, in the fall, 

 to squat on the ground in immense flocks 

 within 50 yards of the pike while teams 

 were passing, and pay no apparent atten- 

 tion to them, so little were they shot at. 

 That was always in the fields where there 

 were cattle and shooting was not allowed, 

 a fact which they seemed to know, as they 

 always assembled in the middle of every 

 other field, and always chose the largest, 

 containing 50 to 100 acres. 



There are a number of small lakes and a 

 reservoir of 16,000 acres of water and 

 marsh a few miles Northwest of here, 

 where they always went in the evening, 

 returning in the early morning, their 

 flight lasting for hours. As I have said, 

 not more than a dozen in a season were 

 killed here, as their flight was high to 

 and from the feeding grounds and not 

 accessible while there. 



The same grounds and lakes are here yet, 

 unchanged, but the old familiar squawk 

 and wedge-shaped flocks are scarcely 

 known now. I miss them; their flight 

 was directly over my house, and although 

 I knew I could not shoot one in 2 shots 

 if I were up there, when a kid I have 

 stood in the yard and fired kegs of pow- 

 der and bags of shot, slugs and gravel 

 stones from my old musket without dis- 

 turbing the birds in the least. 



Where have they gone? Why did they 

 forsake a feeding ground yhich they 

 had habitually used 50 )^ears? Only a 

 few remain, which were winged or cap- 

 tured in nets and which are now associated 

 with other barnyard fowls and kept by 

 the farmers as a curiosity, having become 

 thoroughly domesticated. However, I do 

 not know of such breeding. 



H. M. Evans. 



The reason the geese have quit coming 

 is that most of them have been killed. 

 Many large areas where they formerly 

 halted and fed are now deserted for the 

 same reason. The few geese that now re- 

 main follow the Mississippi and Missouri 

 rivers and the Pacific coast in their migra- 

 tions. Unless game laws are enforced and 



bags limited there will not be a wild goose 

 anywhere in 5 years. — Editor. 



DO THE SAME BIRDS RETURN? 



The bobolink is one of the most beau- 

 tiful birds we find in our fields in summer. 

 He is the only one that sings on the wing. 

 We also have the sea gul] here. He is 

 shot for trimmings for women's hats and 

 just for practice by parties along Lake 

 Erie. This is an .outrage. The gull does 

 more good than all of our sanitary police. 

 I have seen gulls eat at least 10 or 15 tons 

 of dead fish. If the gulls had not eaten 

 them the lake shore would have been cov- 

 ered with decayed fish and our drinking 

 water poisoned. 



It has been questioned whether the same 

 birds return to us in the spring that left 

 the previous fall. I have been in the fields 

 40 years with gun and dog and have taken 

 particular notice of the birds. I am sure 

 the same ones do return. 



A friend of mine put a box in a chestnut 

 tree for some bluebirds. The male bird 

 had some white feathers on one wing, and 

 that bird and his mate had their nest in that 

 box for years, until a boy one day shot 

 the female. The male never came back 

 after that. Some 3 years ago I went to a 

 house and ordered the parties to liberate 

 a robin they were keeping confined. They 

 called me everything that was bad, but I 

 had them let the bird go. They said the 

 bird would not live, and made all kinds of 

 excuses. The bird was put up in a pear 

 tree in the yard, and in a few days was 

 flying all over the place. The old gentle- 

 man fed him all that summer out in the 

 yard from the cup in his cage. In the fall 

 the bird was missing, and they thought 

 something had happened to him; but in 

 the spring he came back, and with him 

 came a mate. The old gentleman fed them 

 all that summer. They had a nest in the 

 pear tree and had young ones. Old Dick, 

 as they called him, had not forgotten his 

 home. He and his mate went away that 

 fall, and the first fine sunny morning last 

 spring the old lady called the family early 

 to tell them Dick and his mate had come 

 back home. The old people are now glad 

 Dick is happy and free. 

 A. W. Hitch, Fish and Game Warden, 



Cleveland, O. 



WHAT WE MUST DO TO SAVE THE 

 BIRDS. 



In a recent article on the destruction of 

 birds in America Mr. W. T. Hornaday 



says: 



"As a result of careful consideration of 

 the subject and of the information that 

 has come to me, I am of the opinion that 



