39 G 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Sept. 28, 1912 
The Native Sweet Gum. 
(Liquidambar styraciflua.) 
BY E. L. DUPUY. 
A plea for native trees does not often have 
to be made. Their desirability for beautifying 
purposes is too well established. 
From a standpoint of sentiment alone they 
are generally chosen, while from an educational 
point of view they are certainly to be preferred 
to those from other countries. The foregoing is 
leaving out entirely their ease of growth and 
freedom from disease, two advantages them¬ 
selves of no little value. Among the native trees 
of this country that are put to ornamental use, 
none deserves a higher place than the forest 
sweet gum. Its glossy, star-shaped leaves, grace¬ 
ful lay of foliage and rich autumn coloring give 
it an attractiveness that places it above many 
of its rivals, while rapid growth and hardiness 
add other good points in its favor. Aside from 
all of these, however, this tree possesses another 
charm which, if the specimen be selected with 
this in view, will add more than all the rest put 
together toward making the tree a thing of in¬ 
terest and unique value. I refer to the orna¬ 
mental and peculiar bark growth on twigs and 
branches of certain specimens of this tree that 
makes it, to those who are acquainted with its 
full beauty, a much-prized member of the tree 
circle on the lawn or yard. 
All of the sweet gum family show tendencies 
to this peculiar “fin bark,’’ but only about one 
in ten, or ten per cent, of the species, possess 
it to a great degree. When a young specimen 
is found, it. should be marked or transplanted at 
once. 
This bark increases as the tree grows and 
stands out like great fins or blades upon all of 
the smaller branches and twig growth. This re¬ 
mains of course after the foliage has gone and 
in winter presents a spectacle that is both un¬ 
usual and interesting, especially after a rain 
or snow, when the bark growth, turning much 
darker with the moistening, and viewed against 
a wintry sky background, is a model rare indeed 
for the decorative artist. Some of the best 
twigs when cut and lightly varnished make draw¬ 
ing room curios that are very ornamental, and 
few of the observing friends are ever able to 
name the subject unless pretty well schooled in 
wood lore. The “hang” or lay of the foliage on 
a sweet gum in full leaf is especially beautiful, 
the leaves all taking a broadside outward position 
instead of hanging edgewise, presenting their 
five-point star form to the very best advantage, 
while a little later when the frosts give them a 
touch, the bronze, yellow and red fires that are 
kindled and that gradually spread over the tree, 
are among the finest that nature produces. 
Food Habits of Birds in Relation to Man. 
CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 
While the great majority of birds are of 
decided economic value, on the other hand a 
few are destructive throughout the year, and 
still others are injurious at certain seasons. 
These are the ones concerning which more defi¬ 
nite knowledge is needed. 
The study of the food habits of birds, car¬ 
ried on by the Biological Survey of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, has been of 
inestimable value in determining those birds 
which are useful and those which are harmful. 
To be of greatest value, however, this work 
must be supplemented by special work in the 
u 
native sweet gum. 
different States, and this is what is now being 
done in California. In January of last year, 
H. C. Bryant, of the University of California, 
was appointed by the State Fish and Game Com¬ 
mission to carry on this special work. Careful 
study will be made during two years of the 
food habits of certain birds which are now on 
the protected list, but whose economic value has 
been questioned in certain sections of the State. 
The birds, which will receive special study, are 
the meadowlark, blackbird and robin, while the 
horned lark, roadrunner and mourning dove will 
also receive some attention. This investigation 
will be carried on in a thorough manner, by 
stomach analysis of birds taken throughout the 
year, by careful field study, and by consultation 
with farmers, so that the results should mean 
much to the agricultural interests of the State. 
The harm done by birds can usually be 
traced to one of the following reasons: (1) To 
an overabundance of some particular species of 
bird in a certain locality; (2) to the establish¬ 
ment of artificial conditions, as results when 
waste lands are placed under cultivation, thus 
removing the natural food supply of birds when 
they turn to the new supply furnished by man; 
(3) to a failure of the natural food supply of 
the birds, when they feed largely on food not 
taken to any great extent under normal condi¬ 
tions ; (4) to the location of crops in relation 
to the nesting sites of birds, as shown in the 
damage done by red-winged blackbirds in grain 
fields located near marshy lands where these 
birds nest. 
In a State like California, where natural 
conditions are continually changing, as immense 
tracts of land are being opened up for cultiva¬ 
tion, it is especially important that the agricul¬ 
turists have a definite knowledge of the relation 
which birds bear to both agriculture and horti¬ 
culture in the State. In the series of articles 
which are to follow this one, it will be the pur¬ 
pose to point out some of the ways in which the 
bird life of California is of value on the farm 
and in the orchard. 
More About Wild Pigeons. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Sept. 11 .—Editor 
Forest and Stream: In a recent issue of Forest 
and Stream was an interesting article on the 
wild pigeon. One thing in this correspondent’s 
article that particularly struck me was this: All 
the millions of pigeons that he saw in those days, 
now so long past, were going northward—never 
a flock flying in a southerly direction. 
During those thirty and more years ago, I, 
too, saw millions of wild pigeons migrating. 
They were always flying south, and always in 
the very early morning and late afternoon— 
never, as I can remember, after 8 a, m. and 
after this hour before 4 or 5 p. m. None 
passed over during what I may call the heat 
of the day. Occasionally a small flock of sev¬ 
eral hundred would stop and feed for some days 
on the mast nearby. 
This was in Western North Carolina and 
upper South Carolina, and might further say in 
Greenville county, S. C., and Henderson, Bun¬ 
combe and Transylvania counties, N. C. Oc¬ 
tober was the month they came south, and pos¬ 
sibly into November. It seems these birds had 
a different line of travel going north and going 
south, and quite a different time of the year. 
But where were they “between times?” 
It is or rather was an interesting bird, or 
both is and was, and largely so because of its 
rather sudden disappearance. At times they 
struck me, too, as being decidedly a stupid 
bird. I well remember while out one afternoon 
in what is now nearly the heart of Asheville, 
with my gun, coming upon a flock. They were 
in an old dead tree. I shot a number of them, 
and they circled around and came back to the 
same old tree till I had shot quite enough for 
family use, some fifteen or twenty, and took 
them home, when, to my surprise, I found that 
a brother of mine with a friend had preceded 
me with some thirty or forty more—all shot 
from that same old tree. They were sent to 
friends in the neighborhood. 
This was in the fall of 1867 or 1868. I have 
not seen a flock in twenty-five or thirty years, 
and I have never had a satisfactory explanation 
for their utter extinction, because they discon- 
