572 
[Oct. io, 1908. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
I kept a pair of these owls for nearly a 
year once, taking them from the nest while 
they were still in the downy stage, and feed¬ 
ing them for about a month with bits of meat 
held out to their beaks on a sharp stick. They 
grew rapidly after once losing the white fuzz 
of their babyhood, and ate so much that 
eventually I let them go free. They flew 
awkwardly at first, but soon found their wings 
and sailed away over the elder-covered flats 
which surrounded the mouth of the little 
canon in which I was living. Often since then 
I have wished that I had put a silver band or 
other mark on the leg of each, so that in the 
future their slayer, if they met death at the 
hands of the hunter, might have given me 
some information as to the time and manner 
of their death. Harry H. Dunn. 
Bird Protection a Necessity. 
Boston, Mass, Oct. 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The welfare of the birds is a matter of 
great importance to you, reader, and to every 
man, woman, and child alive to-day. Were the 
birds exterminated it would mean to us, not 
merely a trifling inconvenience or the loss of 
dollars and cents, but want and famine, pesti¬ 
lence and death. 
You know that many birds are decreasing in 
numbers and that the recent remarkable increase 
of destructive insects and other pests is attract¬ 
ing wide attention; but do you know that it is 
estimated that the birds in Massachusetts eat 
21,000 bushels of insects a day, that the birds in 
Nebraska destroy 170 carloads daily, that a single 
species of hawk saves the Western farmers $57,- 
600 annually by killing grasshoppers, that the 
tree sparrows of Iowa eat two and one third tons 
of weed seeds daily, and that our native spar¬ 
rows save the farmers of the country $35,000,000 
annually by eating weed seeds, while they also 
save an immense loss by destroying insects? A 
vast sum might be saved if we could increase the 
number of birds by even one per cent, and this 
is easily possible. 
Pests such as insects, field mice and weeds in¬ 
crease wherever birds are depleted; the cost of 
raising grains, other food stuffs, and domestic 
animals increases in consequence and this causes 
an advance in the prices of the necessities of life. 
Higher taxes are imposed to sustain state or mu¬ 
nicipal work for the control of insect pests, and 
the poor find it hard to exist. 
Always and everywhere the forces of animal 
and vegetable life spring into pernicious activity 
and swarm with destructive effect wherever their 
natural checks are removed. The ever-present 
danger of the increase of insects is shown by 
the investigations of W. L. McAtee of the 
United States Biological Survey. He made a 
careful, systematic, minute examination of the 
surface of small areas of woodland and meadow 
soil. 
If the number of animal objects found on 
these areas will hold good on larger tracts, each 
acre of forest land contains 1,216,880 small forms 
of animal life, mostly insects or their eggs, and 
each acre of meadow land contains 13,654,710 
such objects. Many of the insects eat others; 
but people who realize how fast insects increase 
when unchecked can readily imagine what would 
happen were such active, voracious insect eaters 
as the birds exterminated. 
Some birds will eat their own weight of in¬ 
sects each day, and the daily food of a full- 
fledged young robin equals sixteen feet of cater¬ 
pillars or earthworms. Nevertheless the destruc¬ 
tion of birds by men continues. Many species of 
birds have been exterminated, and many others 
are nearing extermination. The foreign portion 
of our population rapidly increasing is a serious 
menace to bird life. 
“No doubt,” you will say, “we should protect 
the birds”; but what are you doing to conserve 
them? Are you making an effort or spending a 
cent? 
The National Association of Audubon Soci¬ 
eties for the Protection of Wild Birds and Ani¬ 
mals, organized and endowed by practical busi¬ 
ness men and women, directed by altruistic, 
unpaid executive officers, is engaged in securing 
bird protective legislation and law enforcement. 
It is protecting the sea birds and wildfowl on 
their breeding grounds on hundreds of islands 
along the coasts of the United States. 
It is educating children and the people gener¬ 
ally regarding the value of birds. Everyone 
should consider it a duty to join this association 
or contribute in some way to its work, for it is 
the only national association in this country that 
is organized for the protection of all useful 
birds; and the urgent needs for its activities are 
far in excess of its resources. William Dutcher, 
the President, 141 Broadway, New York City, 
will always be grateful for an encouraging word 
from any sympathizer in his work of self-sacri¬ 
ficing endeavor on behalf of the birds and his 
fellowmen. Edward Howe Forbush. 
The New Elephant House. 
On Sunday next, the pachyderms—so-called— 
in the New York Zoological Society’s Park in 
the Bronx, will be moved to the new elephant 
house which has just been completed. This new 
house is considered the most beautiful shelter 
for animals in the world, and its construction is 
in line with all the work done in this park of 
the New York Zoological Society, for it is thor¬ 
oughly modern as well as beautiful. 
It is built of Indiana lime stone, adorned with¬ 
out by models of some of the animals which 
it is to contain. Mr. A. P. Proctor and Mr. 
Charles R. Knight having contributed statues 
of elephants, tapirs, rhinoceros and hippo¬ 
potami. The building will contain twelve 
cages each 21 by 24 feet, protected by enor¬ 
mously heavy steel bars. Dr. W. T. Hornaday 
declares that the collection which it will house 
is the most complete in the world. 
Friendly Screech Owls. 
Santa Barbara, Cal., Oct. 1 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I had a pleasing experience re¬ 
cently at my cottage in Montecito. 
About 7 o’clock in the evening I heard some 
birds under the eaves making that purring roll 
which shows the screech owl in a contented 
frame of mind. Soon after two little owls flew 
down and after scratching at the window glass, 
settled in one corner of the window ledge, 
crowded up into as small a bunch as they could 
and stared at me. 
I was only five or six feet away, but from 
the way the little fellows gurgled and chirruped 
I think they fancied that they were alone. Pos¬ 
sibly the reflection of the light in the west, just 
after sunset, made the pane act like a mirror. 
Anyhow, when I moved nearer and sat down 
they flew away. The next evening, though, one 
came back and lighted on a trellis about fifteen 
feet away and began talking in the same way. I 
took up the conversation as well as I could and 
we had a dialogue for quite a time. I have 
noticed that some birds will keep on answering 
an attempted imitation of their notes which is 
not even deceptive to the human ear. I have 
often had meadow larks keep repeating their 
clear trills in evident answer to my clumsy 
whistling. It may be that the birds were trying 
to teach me to better my imperfect efforts. I 
have not seen my screech owls lately, but a big 
silent shadow sweeps through the twilight now 
and then to settle on a hay stack or in an oak. 
H. G. Dulog. 
A Curious Bee Hive. 
New Salem, Ind., Sept. 23. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have been much interested in the 
recent articles in regard to wild bees that have 
appeared in your paper. 
The following clipping from the Rushville 
Daily Republican gives an account of a swarm 
of wild bees that seems almost impossible, but 
is true nevertheless: 
The gilded ball, three feet in diameter, at the top of 
the forty-five-foot spire on the dome of the Rush county 
court house here, is inhabited. “There are bees in its 
bonnet,” and the taxpayers of Rush county are wonder¬ 
ing whether they will be taxed for the honey. Two 
hundred feet from the ground the novel beehive is alive 
with business. A field glass reveals an opening in the 
base of the huge ball, through which the busy little 
bees are constantly passing, evidently preparing for a 
cold winter, and there is not a drone among them, to 
judge from their industry. The city of Greensburg, 
with its lone tree “stunt” is no longer in the lead. 
Probably none of your readers would know 
what is meant by “the lone tree stunt of Greens¬ 
burg.” This is a small tree about twelve feet 
in height growing on the roof of the Decatur 
county Court House at Greensburg, Ind. There 
were formally three trees, but the winds have 
destroyed two of them. The roots of the tree 
have gotten a foothold among the tile roofing 
and the dirt that has accumulated. The tree 
does not look to be more than six or eight feet 
high when looking at it from the street. It is 
either an elm or maple, I have forgotten which. 
It is supposed that birds carried the seeds there. 
We have had a continued dry spell for about 
six weeks. Whether the tree will be able to 
'survive it or not is yet to be seen, as there is 
no relief in sight. Willard P. King. 
Chestnut Blight. 
During the early summer a great deal was 
published concerning the chestnut blight, which 
was then and is now believed to be killing off 
vast numbers of these trees. The blight was 
reported from various parts of Pennsylvania and 
New York, but in view of the abundance of the 
nuts at the present time, there is more or less 
confidence that the blight may not be so serious 
as it was at first believed to be. It seems that 
the trees in some sections are not affected, while 
with others the truth will probably not be known 
until next spring. 
The Forest and Stream may he obtained front 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularh. 
