Viti As DUB ONT BU ICE TN 2 | 
dom be induced to fly and then only in short runs along the surface 
of the water. They certainly were fool birds and were a great nuisance 
to the hunters. It would have been a crime, I believe, to have shot 
them. It would have been the same in the case of the Mourning Dove. 
Now both of these birds in the eyes of so-called sportsmen are looked 
upon as legitimate game. Certainly some changes have come from 
what they were in those by-gone days. 
We now hear a great deal about the Crow as being “Public Enemy 
No. 1” which I believe is a too hasty conclusion. Why not take into 
consideration his good points as well for he is not altogether bad. Of 
that I have some evidences and my opinion is that if we do not give 
him a fairer “break”, crop diseases, especially those injuring corn, will 
be more prevalent in the future than they have been in the past. Cut 
worms will be more abundant and so will grasshopper scourges. The 
entomologists tell us that one of the latter is to be expected the present 
year, by the way. The underdeveloped hoppers or “nymphs” would make 
excellent food for the Crow and, in my opinion, would be much relished 
by him. No, the encouragement of “Crow Shoots’, and dynamiting 
them at their winter roosts, is all wrong as it has been practiced in 
our state and by the Conservation Department. It is wrong, I think, 
for the harm it does psychologically to our growing youth by encourag- 
ing a murderous instinct. 
Glen Ellyn. 
Winter Birds of Park Ridge 
By DONALD DUNCAN 
Winter birds hold a fascination which is somehow lacking in our 
more fair-weather bird friends and it is always with great pleasure 
that we look forward to a trip into the country through the woods or 
over the wintry fields in search of hardy winter visitants. So with 
each succeeding winter’s series of hikes, a few new Species, growing 
always fewer, are recorded as belonging to that group of birds which 
can find enough food during the short winter days to carry them 
through the long cold nights. 
A “winter” bird is a rather indefinite and a too elastic term to be 
closely defined but, in general, any bird remaining after the 20th of 
December or seen before the 10th of February in the Chicago area may 
be considered a winter visitant or resident. There are, of course, occa- 
sional exceptions when a bird seen shortly after the 20th or before the 
10th are just exceptionally late or early migrants or wanderers and 
conversely, a few birds not seen during the period may really be winter 
visitants. However, for the sake of convenience, these limits may be 
arbitrarily selected, at least in a discussion of this kind. 
Along the Desplaines River near Devon Avenue and over nearby 
country, fifty species have been found during the last five winters and 
