TOR eA UD Ue BrO ONS BOO DL eet f.N 15 
entirely from pictures taken by himself, and demonstrated why he is such a 
popular lecturer before schools and clubs of southern Illinois, eastern 
Missouri and Iowa. 
Sunday morning a cavalcade of cars was formed at the Lincoln-Douglas 
Hotel and we drove to Florence, Ill., stopping at various places along the 
way to inspect bluebird boxes which contained a variety of things, including 
a family of young bluebirds that were of an age which permitted banding, 
and this *T. E.” proceeded to do. At Florence we stopped at Ocean Trail 
Park, on the Illinois River, and several boxes put out for prothonotary 
warblers were visited. It was too early to know what the success of these 
may be, but we hope for a report to be given in some later number of the 
Bulletin. Here a dinner featuring either snapping turtle or fish was served, 
at the close of which President Eifrig expressed the appreciation of all 
those present for all the energy and thought that had been expended by 
Dr. Musselman and his associates in arranging for and conducting us 
through a schedule that proved to be most instructive, highly entertaining, 
and fn every way thoroughly enjoyable. . 
The various groups then again took to the cars and went their various 
ways, carrying with them some new ideas and, we hope, a strengthened will 
to support the conservation of our wildlife whenever and wherever the 
opportunity presents. 
ct fi s 
Wild Bird Pets 
By Doris A. PLAPP 
OUR BIOLOGICAL laboratory has always had animals living in it — kept 
clean, well fed, and properly handled. We have sought to teach boys to 
appreciate lower forms of life. One way they have responded from time 
to time is by adding to our little menagerie. Long is the list of pets which 
have come and gone, to give happiness and understanding to high school 
lads. 
Among these pets have been four outstanding wild birds — birds that 
forgot their wildness and adapted themselves beautifully to strange condi- 
tions. Three of them could not fiy. They had met with accidents either 
at the hands of hunters or predatory animals. The fox sparrow had but 
one wing; the robin and the Brewer’s blackbird had one wing each badly 
crippled. We called the blackbird “Rusty” because before considering his 
classification carefully I took him to be a rusty blackbird. Rusty was very 
fond of meal worms. He would eat them out of my hand, but only when I 
had my smock on. If I came to feed him on my arrival in the morning 
with my coat still on he would not come to me. He sang cheerily from his 
large cage. At Thanksgiving time he was ill — his eyes closed. I took him 
home with me for special treatment which consisted in bathing his eyes 
with argyrol. He was soon better and I decided to experiment in giving 
him his freedom in my room at home. How he enjoyed it! It makes me 
feel sad to think that to do this didn’t occur to me sooner. He walked and 
