Pere A DAU BIO NaAB IU Tig hv Tal N 29 
early 1900s than was incurred during the entire period since the state’s 
establishment and development. The extensive marshes teeming with fowl 
and small game were drained; the grand network of rivers, with their 
backwaters and flocd plains abundant with wildlife, were dredged, leveed 
and damned. The prairie sod was turned under by the steel plow, and the 
hardwood forests were eliminated or confined to a fraction of their original 
size.” 
One Fred Kimble of Chillicothe is recorded as having taken 40 geese 
in one day; 1,920 ducks in a hunting trip which lasted 19 days; 122 wood 
ducks before nine in the morning, and 115 blue-winged teal in a few 
hours. One can be grateful that the guns were not as effective as they 
are today, and that the human population was not any greater. It is a 
wonder that with such a heavy toll, more species did not face extinction. 
The authors make some useful comments on the value of duck clubs, 
a few of which own two to three thousand acres of private hunting land. 
[here are almost one thousand duck clubs in the state, all performing a 
useful function in maintaining marsh and wetlands. Illinois in the 1800s 
must have been a paradise for waterfowl. It was a land rich in marshes, 
rivers, sloughs and ponds. According to waterfowl expert Frank Bellrose, 
almost 14 percent of the state was drained by 1944. Now the Illinois River 
tself is polluted almost beyond redemption and another resource has 
seen lost. 
Space is given over to decoy construction, factory decoys, and how 
lecoy-carving fared in three regions in the state. Brief biographies of 
‘oree and four paragraphs are devoted to the most prominent of the decoy 
varvers. The authors are lavish in their use of illustrations, many of them 
ull-page, with a bonus of several advertisements from early magazines 
and catalogs. We trust no library in Illinois will fail to obtain a copy for 
ts bookshelves. —Raymond Mostek 
HOMES FOR BIRDS, Conservation Bulletin 14. Revised 1969. 
Jep't. of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. Supt. of Documents. 20 cents. 
his useful booklet of 18 pages has been revised for people who love song- 
irds and wish to attract them. The booklet describes materials to use for 
Juilding bird houses, gives dimensions and elevations, together with many 
llustrations. One page is devoted to 26 species of birds, and a table des- 
ribing dimensions of nesting boxes, with floor cavity, diameter of entrance 
ind height above ground. 
THE LAST LANDSCAPE. By William H. Whyte. 
Doubleday and Co., Garden City, N.Y., 1968. $6.95. 376 pages. 
Jestined to be a classic in its field, Whyte’s book is already widely quoted 
y planners and conservationists for its sound approach to open space 
jlanning. With almost 80 percent of our population now living in urban 
eas, Whyte presents ideas and suggestions worth looking at by conserva- 
ionists, who, up to now, have done little or nothing about local zoning 
roblems. Scenic roads, easements, green belts, and play spaces are part 
if his subject matter. For those interested in our metropolitan areas, and 
low they might look with greater citizen interest, Whyte’s volume is 
timulating. 
