The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-13
SAVE THE WOOD DUCK.

There are certain natures to whom nothing is sacred So long as it is fit for food The beauty of an animal or flow CT, and the poetry and sentiment sur rounding it. are all as nothing com- pared with the fact that it Is good to eat" am not referring now to people who are in distress to the hungry or the starving. such might be excused if they ate humning birds, or even flying squirrels-but to those who, having plenty, would not forego a luxury, even though their indulgence in it caused a national calamity.
 Last week I was walking along the margin of a blue lake. when, suddenly rounding bend in the shore, l saw a wood drake, one of the most beautiful of all our native waterfowl, floating lightly upon the unrippled surface of the water, brilliant gem in a setting of laps lasuli. It was the first bird of this species I had seen in years, but the joy I felt in seeing it was clouded by the knowledge that 1t was fast be- coming rare, and that it was disappear ing entirely from many parts of it's range.
 Seventy-flve or a hundred years ago, the wood duck was a comparatively common bird. selling in the market at from twenty-five to eighty cents pair; a few weeks ago I saw two price lists in which the species was quoted at twenty dollars pair. Unless the bird receives much better protection than it does today, it will not be long before it is struck from the price lists altogether. No lover of birds nor true sportsman should allow the wood duck to ''pass" without making some effort to save it from the annihilation which threaten it. Looked at from the most selfish point of view, even, it Is foolish to allow com- paratively few people, namely, certain gunners and those whose tables are to be supplied with wood duck, to deprive us and all future generations in this country of one of our most beautiful and valuable birds. Why should these few people be allowed to wipe out, for their own special amusement, and to gratify their individual appetites, the remnant of a race of wild fowl which, if given half chance, might prove one of the resources of this country in- definitely?
 Let us for moment take a look at the bird we are discussing, and then consider whether it is worth while mak- ing an effort in it's behalf. The drake is strikingly marked and coored. His upper bill is bright red at the base, pale yellow on the sides, and black along the ridge; the lower n1andible is black. The feet are dull orange, with black claws. The head is green, with purplish re- factions, and conspicuously marked with white lines. It has an elongated crest some of the feathers in which are white. The throat belly, and band in front of each wing, are also white; the breast is purplish chestnut, spotted with white; the sides ocraceous buff, finely barred with black, and the flank feathers are tipped with wider bars of black and wkite. The back is green ish brown; scapulars darker: speculub steel-blue, and the primaries are tipped with greenish blue There is a purplish chestnut spot on either side of the base of the tail. The female bird is much plainer. but still beautiful.
 The wood duck is, or rather was, dis tributed over almost the entire conti- nent of North America, and because it Inested throughout the greater part of