May 27, 1911] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
815 
The Flight of Wild Geese. 
Chicago, Ill., May 18. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of April 1, Percival 
Hicks writes interestingly upon this subject; not 
so much to advance a new theory as to show 
the fallacy of some already propounded. This 
is primarily directed at Hermit, but since his 
views and mine, as expressed, do not differ 
materially, I would like to attempt to show that 
his comparison of a boat and flock of geese 
might not be a good one. He says: 
“It is well known to all sailors and water 
men generally that there is no place so un¬ 
favorable to a boat as the wake of a preceding 
craft.” 
This is true enough since the displacement, speed, 
etc., stir the water up generally, but applied to 
nature it is a different proposition, at least as 
touching the family of birds under discussion. 
A vivid picture comes to mind now of a 
mother goose swimming along with her goslings 
grouped close behind, and indeed that is the- 
common relative position while swimming. I 
feel positive that the goslings were suffering no 
inconvenience from position; in fact, such a 
sight is an example of absolute ease of motion. 
We all have seen ducks swim one behind an¬ 
other with no handicap. Fish swim in schools. 
Will anyone say the ones behind have the worst 
of it? 
These things are right under our eyes and 
leave no room for guessing. Probably aero¬ 
planes do perform “much better in undisturbed 
air.” If undisturbed means calm air, so do 
geese. But I submit that- since the example of 
one boat following another, so far as resistance 
is concerned, does not hold true in the example 
of the goslings following the goose without in¬ 
convenience. We cannot accept the comparison 
as applied to geese in motion in an entirely dif¬ 
ferent element. 
Percival West also believes that when the 
geese drop out of line from fatigue they occupy 
a lower altitude. He does not tell us why they 
could do better there. If the difference in alti¬ 
tude is only such as to make him “believe” they 
occupy a position below the level of the flock, 
the difference in altitude could not vary enough 
to affect the ease of flight. 
Is it not natural to suppose that all of the 
geese would fly at such an altitude best suited 
to their comfort? 
I do not pretend to know whether or not tired 
geese could rest up by flying within the tri¬ 
angle, but I remember the bicycle rider who 
hung up a record when he was paced by a train. 
The suction helped him along. 
Dixmont. 
[That the action of the two elements, air and 
water, on birds and boats respectively, cannot 
well be compared is understood, but in this con¬ 
nection the following instance may be of in¬ 
terest: On the Hudson River great fleets of 
canalboats and ice barges are towed to New 
York city daily by powerful tugs. “Catching a 
tow” is the common practice of small boatmen. 
Canoes are frequently seen immediately behind 
the last barges, where they remain without being 
made fast, held there by the suction set up by 
the flotilla. The flood tide is very strong, and 
the two tugs frequently whistle for the assist¬ 
ance of one or two other tugs, which range 
alongside the flotilla and push, but this strong 
current has little or no effect on the small boat 
that is drawn along by suction behind the tow. 
If left there, a small boat will drift best broad¬ 
side to the current, but this is not a safe thing 
to do, since the suction behind the flotilla may 
capsize it under the overhang of a barge.— 
Editor.] 
The Vanishing Shore Birds. 
It is no news to gunners that shore birds are 
rapidly disappearing Killed at all seasons of 
the year, exceedingly gregarious and decoying 
readily they offer an easy prey to any but the 
least skilled gunner. 
What sportsmen do not know is the useful¬ 
ness of many species of shore birds. Nine sorts 
of shore birds—some of them our most familiar 
peeps—feed on mosquitoes, and in the aggre¬ 
gate must destroy millions of larvse. They eat 
also the larvae of various species of horseflies 
and of the North American fever tick and so 
tend to protect horses and cattle. On the 
Western prairies shore birds—in common with 
a multitude of other animals and birds—devour 
the Rocky Mountain locust, from twenty-five 
to forty-eight of these insects having been 
found in a single stomach. The army worm, 
the cotton worm and cotton cut worm are all 
eaten by various shore birds, as are boll-weevil, 
the cloverleaf weevil and rice weevil and the 
pea weevil. 
Upland plovers have been observed following 
the plow in the field and feeding eagerly on the 
different larvae turned up in the freshly plowed 
soil. Besides this, they work in the garden, 
eating the grubs that destroy vegetables; while 
a Massachusetts man, near whose garden bred 
three pairs of spotted sandpipers, declared that 
he had many times seen them make faithful 
search there for cut worms, spotted squash bugs 
and green flies. It is certainly worth while for 
gunners, but especially for legislators, to con¬ 
sider the good done by these little birds, and 
to take action which will effectively protect them 
during their passage over the land and, if pos¬ 
sible, will encourage them to remain and breed 
with us. 
A letter recently printed in the London Field 
tells of the service in a turnip field of a flock 
of plovers. This is the lapwing, peewit or green 
plover, the bird made famous in one of the most 
familiar of all quotations, as getting himself in 
spring another crest. The correspondent says: 
“Dr. Hammond Smith has conferred a bene¬ 
fit on agriculturists, and is to be congratulated 
on raising in your paper the question of the 
protection of the lapwing, peewit or green plover. 
“The surprise is that farmers themselves do 
not take steps to protect a bird of such value 
to them—did they but realize it—in keeping 
down insect pests. No charge of damage can 
be brought against the plover, and it should be 
in some degree protected against the spoliation 
which goes on every spring for the purpose of 
providing a dainty for people who demand what 
is in season, but very few of whom would 
know whether the eggs before them were those 
of a plover, a gull, or some other bird. 
“An instance of the usefulness of this bird 
came before me many years ago in my younger 
days when I used constantly to ride with an old 
friend who farmed his own estate. 
“One day we were riding through a large field 
of turnips which was infested with wire worms. 
He had tried to destroy them in various ways 
without success, and was having the field drag¬ 
ged. When the men were at one end a flock 
of plovers settled down at the other. My friend 
ordered the men to leave and see what the birds 
would do, and as a result when the birds had 
been through the field not a wire worm could 
be found, and the crop was practically saved. 
F'rom that day it was understood that anyone 
in his employment who was discovered either 
killing a plover or taking its eggs on any of his 
land would at once be discharged.” 
A Just Judge. 
Montgomery, Ala., May 18. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: State Game and Fish Commissioner 
John H. Wallace, Jr., is highly pleased over the 
outcome of a case in Wilcox county, arising 
from the killing of a doe by Hon. B. M. Miller, 
judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Ala¬ 
bama. Commissioner Wallace received the in¬ 
telligence from county warden G. L. Alford, of 
Camden, to the effect that Judge Miller, while 
hunting, had killed a doe, whereupon Mr. Wal¬ 
lace instructed Mr. Alford to swear out a war¬ 
rant against Judge Miller and to use every dili¬ 
gence in the matter of prosecuting him with the 
ultimate hope of conviction. 
At the organization of the grand jury, Judge 
Miller charged the jury especially relative to 
infractions of the game and fish laws. The fol¬ 
lowing from the Wilcox Banner discloses what 
occurred: 
“The spring term of the circuit court of Wil¬ 
cox county convened on Monday, May 1. The 
grand jury was charged by Judge Miller in his 
usual able and forceful manner. Milliard Jack- 
son, of Pine Apple, was appointed foreman. 
There was an unique matter in the judge's 
charge that particularly attracted attention. 
Since the last court the judge himself had vio¬ 
lated the game law by killing a female deer on 
a famous hunt in the game preserves of certain 
hunters of which he was one. The game warden 
had made an affidavit against the judge and had 
him placed under bond. The judge admitted 
killing the doe and commended the course of 
the warden in his upholding the law, and he 
expressed a desire to be indicted, and that he 
was anxious to pay the fine. He then applied 
in an apt and pertinent manner this particular 
case to the protection of human blood. If officers 
would be as diligent in the protection of human 
beings as these officers were in the protection 
of game, it would be better for society in gen¬ 
eral, and would probably tend to reduce the 
shedding of human blood. In other words, he 
appealed for a more wholesale sentiment on the 
question of law violations, particularly those of 
murder.” 
Commenting on the prosecution of Judge 
Miller and his attitude in the case, Mr. Wallace 
said: 
“Judge Miller has attained the highest grounds 
possible for a patriotic judge to assume. His 
course is highly commendable and will have a 
superb moral effect, not only in Alabama, but 
throughout the entire country. He has evi¬ 
denced the most exalted degree of patriotism 
attainable, and proclaims to the world that the 
law should not only be applied to the obscure 
and defenseless, but to those occupying stations 
of power and influence as well.” 
Protectionist. 
