erie Gal ONG BC Beatin 45 
The Storm and the Birds 
E went up to Pelican Lake again this year. We have a cottage 
there. It is eighteen miles north of Brainerd, Minnesota. The 
lake is four and one-half miles wide and six and one-half miles long; so 
it has some bad storms. There are two little islands in the lake that are 
covered with gulls and terns. These gulls and terns come out and fly 
over the water every evening, hunting for minnows. The storm came 
at night. The gulls and terns came out that evening for minnows. 
Then a bad wind arose and they could not fly back to the islands. 
The wind kept getting worse till at 11:30 it was a hurricane. The hail 
was as big as hens’ eggs. The rain was coming down fast. This storm 
lasted till 2:30. At three o’clock there was another one which was 
worse still. It made the house shake. At five o’clock there was another 
bad storm. 
The birds that were out were washed into the lake and in about 
two days washed up on the beach. These birds were of many different 
varieties. There must have been twenty-five different kinds. . The 
waves were very big and would wash over the island easily. We went 
to the island the next day. It was covered with dead and wounded 
birds, some having lost one or both eyes. The next day we found a 
little tern swimming around with only one eye. We took him back to 
the island. The people who lived there said it was the worst storm they 
had had for twenty-five years. One of the farmers up there had to 
stay up all night to hold in his front window. The corn and grain were 
all knocked down about two days before cutting. We had many other 
bad storms. Bruce BritTTEN, 
River Forest, Ill. 
An Appeal trom Massachusetts 
Dr. E. W. Nelson, 
Bureau of Biological Survey, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. 
Dear Dr. Nelson:— 
AY I ask your help in the matter of the Bobolink? Cannot the Bio- 
logical Survey now rescind its order of January 17, 1919, permitting 
the killing of Bobolinks “because seriously injurious to the rice crop of 
_the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida?”’ The rice growing has now left 
these states. According to the last census only seven-tenths of one per 
cent of the rice of the country is grown along the Bobolink migration 
route. 
