FOREST AND S T R E A M 
217 
“Wah-rce-ow!" cries the fugitive, “ Wah- 
ree-ow-oiv-ow!” and away it flaps, barely 
holding its long legs above the reeds, in a 
slow, rail-like flight. 
Rail-like also are the olive-brown of its 
plumage, the characteristic white stripes, 
and the extremely tired manner in which it 
drops into the bog. The red man knows 
that the bird will not rise again, even if he 
should send his cur-dog into the sedge 
where it skulks. He prizes its flesh; but 
having no gun at hand paddles indifferently 
away. 
This rail-like creature is the Florida limp- 
kin, courlan or crying bird (Animus gigan- 
teus), externally resembling the various 
“crakes,” but osteologicaliy allied to the 
cranes. His range is the West Indies, 
Florida and the Gulf Coast, but in the 
United States he is rarely seen outside of 
the Everglades. He fattens on a large, 
green snail which is abundant in the lush 
swamp growth. The latter part of April is 
the pairing time for the courlan, when his 
wild and melancholy love wail may be 
heard in the most inaccessible morasses. He 
is a near neighbor to the sluggish moccasin 
and to the deadly diamond-back rattlesnake 
of the fens. 
T HE nest of the courlan is a mat of 
sodden wheat, in the center of which 
a depression contains from four to 
six extremely large, spotty eggs. The 
cradle -is so cunningly attached to the heart 
of a tuft of grass alopg a bayou that it 
cannot be dislodged by tide or freshet 
Few white men have ever seen the nest 
of a crying bird, and the photograph which 
accompanies this article may be an unique 
example. It was taken by the famous in¬ 
ventor, Thomas A. Edison, and his son 
Charles, who discovered the nest deep in the 
green Everglades. 
The young broke the shell early in May, 
and after the manner of infant rails, the 
fluffy brownish chicks promptly scuttled 
off among the reeds with their parents and 
were seen no more. At the present moment, 
we need make no doubt, they are waging 
successful war against the juicy green 
snails, according to the time-honored cus¬ 
tom of their tribe. Somewhere among the 
pathless wastes of the Everglades they are 
raising their strange and raucous cry, “Wah- 
ree-ozv! ow! otv!” 
The Nest of the Courlan is a Mat of Wheat 
SOME COMMON GAME BIRDS 
AQUATIC AND RAPACIOUS SPECIES THAT 
ARE MALIGNED BECAUSE MISUNDERSTOOD 
By HUBERT HUTTON 
Illustrated by Courtesy of United States Department of Agriculture. 
illustrate the beneficial qualities of the 
group. 
The gallinaceous game birds, as quail, 
grouse, and pheasants, take far less insect 
food than the shore birds, yet all of them 
do a certain amount of good. Because of 
their close contact with crops it is important 
that their economic relations be made wide¬ 
ly known. The hawks and owls have a bad 
name, but for the most part it is undeserved, 
and indiscriminate persecution of these 
birds is a serious mistake. Accounts of six 
species will be published in a series in this 
department in order to point out the dis¬ 
tinction between injurious hawks and owls 
and useful ones. 
I. THE UPLAND PLOVER 
A RT RAMI A LONGICAUDA, or the 
L upland plover, forms a very striking 
exception in habits to its closest rel¬ 
atives, the sandpipers. Whereas sandpipers 
love the vicinity of water, the upland plover 
frequents dry hills and prairies, as its name 
implies, and is most abundant in interior 
sections. The plover breeds from Oregon, 
Oklahoma, and Virginia north to Alaska, 
Mackenzie, and Maine, migrating over the 
more southern parts of the continent, finally 
spending the winter in the pampas of Ar¬ 
gentina. 
Grasshoppers, crickets, and weevils, all of 
which exact a heavy toll from agriculture, 
make up almost half of its food, and a large 
portion of its living is derived from eating 
such farm pests as leaf-beetles, and many 
other injurious species. In all, about ninety- 
seven per cent, of its food consists of animal 
matter, chiefly of injurious and neutral 
forms. Its vegetable food consists of such 
weed pests as buttonweed, foxtail grass, and 
sand spurs. 
Mr. W. L. McAtee finds that “notwith¬ 
standing that the upland plover injures no 
crop and consumes a host of the worst 
enemies of agriculture, it is one of the nu¬ 
merous shore birds that have been hunted 
to the verge of extinction. “Can it be,” 
asks Mr. McAtee, “that the American public 
will allow one of the best friends of agricul¬ 
ture to be exterminated by hunters who 
care only for the momentary excitement of 
dropping these swiftly flying birds, and the 
pleasure of devouring the few mouthfuls 
of savory flesh they afford?” 
A RARE NEST FROM THE 
FLORIDA EVERGLADES 
By Henry Marion Hall. 
Once in a while the canoe of a Florida 
Indian, as it noses its way through the 
interminable ocean of grass in the Ever¬ 
glades, may flush a large, brown bird. 
T HE Biological Survey of the United 
States Department of Agriculture has 
found that game and aquatic birds, 
as a rule, have less economic interest than 
the species more closely associated with 
man. Nevertheless nearly all aquatic birds 
have important relations with the fishing 
industry. 
One of these, the horned grebe, sometimes 
accused of living entirely upon fish, is 
known to feed largely on crawfish, other 
crustaceans, and insects. Terns also have 
been held responsible for the serious reduc¬ 
tion of food fishes in some localities, but a 
careful study of their food habits demon¬ 
strates that only a small proportion of their 
diet consists of such fishes. On account of 
the relatively small number of terns, it is 
manifestly impossible for them to do all the 
damage attributed to them, even if they fed 
exclusively on food fishes. 
Certain aquatic birds approach the land 
birds in feeding habits. Examples are 
Franklin’s gull and the black tern, both of 
which by their destruction of insects are 
beneficial to man. All the shore birds are 
strikingly beneficial in their food habits, 
and the slaughter of these game birds de¬ 
prives the farmer of valuable allies against 
some of the worst crop pests. The food 
habits of the upland plover and killdeer 
The Upland Plover, Prairie Rover 
