Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-26
BY MARJORIE MACDILL.

n Tow that the feathered world is hard at
nj work graphing with the high cost OF
Y worms and the knotty problems of fam
lily raising and housekeeping generally,
the heyday of the naturalist's hunting season
Is in full swing.
with every one from Mr.. and Mrs. Great
Blue Heron 20 Father and Mother Chipping
Sparrow intent on scratching out living for
their rapacious infants, willy bird hunters are
sneaking up and taking pot shots at preoccu-
pied families throughout the length and
breadth Of the land, not to mention Canada
and Alaska.
High-powered binoculars and the last word
IN rapid-action cameras have replaced the out
moded slingshot and popgun Of nest-robbing
bad boys I'm this modern hunting, however. with
the result that hardly O bird is left today I'm
the temperate and arctic zones Of North Amer.
lea whose nesting range is uncharted or whose
nest and eggs have not been spotted at least
once.
There are plenty of interesting gaps to be
filled in, Of course but the privacy Of the
family life Of practically all the more impor-
tant species Is about as tenuous as that OF o
popular movie star or Of Charles Lindbergh.
Conspicuous among recent birds that have
had their private affairs dragged into the
pathological spotlight Is denizen OF the reefs
and shoals of the Pacific that has managed to
hide his domestic life from impertinent scien-
tific inquiry for nearly $50 years. This Is the
surf bird Of the West Coast. q bird that has
occasionally been seen Winteftng as Tar sousn
as the Straits Of Magellan.
TT is little wonder he was so secrettve. for
g - when Dr. Joseph Dixon OF the University OF
California finally ran him to earth on the
slopes Of Mount Mckinley the highest noun
tain on the continent and about the last place
90 vHvVl@ N0nt
TO find the nest Of shore bird he found that
docile male meekly sitting on the eggs doing
the lions share of the incubatng while friend
wife spent her days In idle gossip with her
emancipated female friends.
This rare bird is believed to have been first
described by q member of one Of Capt. Cooks
famous expeditions In Prince William Sound,
Alaska, in 1889, the year Of the adoption OF the
Constitution Of the United States
Ever since that time, hunting for surf
birds nest has been favorite occupation Of
several generations of naturalists. AS the name
implies, they are shore birds, usually seen
searching for food far out on the reefs where
the long Pacific swells break over the rocks
into fine spray.
Twice q year, in the annual migration, these
little creatures traverse the Pacific Coast line
of two continents from the southern tip of
South America to the northwestern corner Of
North America.
In 1856 somebody took specimen near
San Francisco which was duly recorded In an
pathological collection, and about 1880 DR..
E. w. Nelson, chief of the United States Bio
logical Survey, contributed more fragments to
the story Of the elusive bird by noting its
occurrence in Alaska while making scientific
exploration of that then little known land.
Subsequent explorers from time to time re-
ported seeing the bird in the same territory and
brought back tales from the Indians that they
nested back in the mountains in mosquito
time"
All this, slight though it was, gave weight to
the idea that the breeding grounds were in
Alaska. Eventually another member of the
Biological Survey. studying Alaskan caribou
herds, clinched the argument by the discovery
of young bird under a week DID, well UP above
the timber line on Mckinley Creek. It logically
followed that the nest couldn't be very far
away.
BY this time the field had narrowed down