226 



RECREATION. 



the following restrictive measures should 

 be put into effect: 



"i. Prohibit all egg collecting, except 

 under license from State Game Commis- 

 sioners and the payment of a license fee. 



"2. Provide for the extermination of the 

 English sparrow. 



"3. Prohibit the sale of dead game at 

 all seasons. 



"4. Prohibit ■ the killing or capture of 

 wild birds, and of quadrupeds, other than 

 fur bearing animals, for commercial pur- 

 poses of any kind. (This will stop the 

 slaughter of birds for millinery purposes.) 



"5. Prohibit all spring shooting. 



"6. Prohibit the carrying or using of a 

 gun without a license. 



"7. For 3 years prohibit the killing 

 or capture of any birds, except such birds 

 of prey as may be declared by the United 

 States Biological Survey to be sufficiently 

 noxious to merit destruction. The only 

 exception should be made in favor of per- 

 sons desiring to collect for scientific pur- 

 poses, in moderation, and then only when 

 properly vouched for by some scientific 

 institution, and duly licensed by the State 

 Game Commissioners. 



"8. At the end of 3 years, restrict by 

 legal enactment the number of game birds 

 that may be killed or taken in one day, or 

 in any given period, by a single indi- 

 vidual. 



"A law embodying these features and 

 rigidly enforced would be worth millions 

 of dollars to our farmers and gardeners, 

 and would bring tens of millions' worth 

 of pleasure and enjoyment to ail classes 

 of citizens." 



A BLUEBIRD'S NEST. 



In a fence post near my house a pair of 

 bluebirds, Sialia stalls, built their nest and 

 reared a family of 5 young ones. When 

 I first saw the nest the young were quite 

 small. At my second visit they were feath- 

 ered. Again I went to the spot, but they 

 had flown, possibly that very day, as one. 

 who had peeped in the day before found 

 them still in the nest. 



On my second visit I tried to take out 

 the young ones, to see them more closely, 

 but the aperture was too small to admit 

 my hand, and the nest too deep to permit 

 my fingers to draw out the young birds 1 . 



How the bluebirds came by this dwell- 

 ing I do not know. The aperture and cav- 

 ity, .a young lad informed me, were made 

 by a woodpecker ; possibly the downy or 

 the hairy woodpecker, as the entrance hole 

 was too small for either the golden winged 

 or the red headed species. 



Did the bluebirds dispossess the lawful 

 occupants, or did the woodpeckers build it 

 for sport, as they are said sometimes td 

 do? Or it may be that after digging out 



the cavity the carpenter birds discovered 

 it was too near the dwellings of men. 

 The bluebird being less shy and more con- 

 fiding in the human species, thus legiti- 

 mately came into possession of the aban- 

 doned house. 



Though the boy who gave me the in- 

 formation concerning the woodpecker's 

 work insisted the bird had fashioned the 

 opening, I took the liberty to doubt that 

 the under side was its unaided work. It is 

 horizontal, while their method is to make 

 a circular aperture. In my opinion the 

 under side was made by a human carpen- 

 ter and finished by the bird artisan. There 

 is no doubt, however, that the woodpecker 

 had the largest share in the whole work. 

 F. D. New, New Brunswick, N. J. 



SPECIES OF BLACK DUCKS. 

 I notice in a recent number of Recrea- 

 tion that one contributor says we have 

 2 species of black ducks. I do not agree 

 with him, yet I have noticed the different 

 sizes of this species. I have seen some 

 black ducks that were half again as large 

 as others that were killed the same day. 

 In the spring of '98 my father killed a 

 black duck, along the Cuyahoga river, be- 

 fore the ice was off the lakes, that was so 

 small my father's companion declared it 

 to be a teal. Last fall I killed another, 

 along the river, that was almost as black as 

 coal, without any of the brownish mark- 

 ings usually found. He was as large as a 

 tame duck. He was only wing tipped and 

 he crawled out on the bank. I had to 

 trail him through the snow about 100 yards 

 back through the swamp before I found 

 him. The black duck comes here even 

 after the lakes are frozen, and I have often 

 found them in small streams. In Huron 

 county, Ohio, I have seen black ducks 

 alight in cornfields in flocks of 6 to 100 

 and feed on corn that had been scattered 

 on the ground. They are not quite so 

 large as mallards generally, and not nearly 

 so shy; but they are one of the finest 

 table ducks we have. With the exception 

 of the golden-eye and the American mer- 

 ganser the black duck is the first arrival 

 along the river, before the lakes are open, 

 although it shows a preference for the 

 lakes as soon as the ice breaks up. 



W. B. Haynes, Akron, Ohio. 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 

 In reading articles on pheasants I no- 

 tice nearly every one has the impression 

 that the little pheasants are hard to raise. 

 Such has not been my experience. If given 

 the same chance as any choice fowl, kept 

 clean and free from lice and properly fed, 

 there will be no trouble in raising them. 

 I scarcely ever lose any chick pheasants 

 except through accidents. 



