~ Bellefonte, Pa., August 19, 1927.
ARE PASSENGER
PIGEONS RETURNING.
By H. W. Lush, Galeton.
How many men or women at, or
about the age of 60, do not recall the
days when in Pennsylvania, New
York, Michigan and Canada, millions
of wild or passenger pigeons swarmed
over these States in such numbers
that in many instances they covered
the entire horizon. Then all seeming-
ly seemed to have disappeared.
Many theories were advanced, giv-
ing the reason for believing they were
right. One was, that a disease came
upon them, making a complete exter-
mination. Others claim they were
disappointed many seasons in finding
no beechnuts, or shack, as these nuts
were commonly called, which diverted
them to other countries. One writer
says they came north too early one
spring and after arriving in the lake
country, on their way to Canada, were
confronted with a terrible blizzard,
so much snow having accompanied
this zero blizzard they perished by
the million. This writer stated he
was a captain on a boat on Lake Erie
and that throughout the entire day
the water was blue with birds that
had perished the day before. This
blizzard having come so late in the
spring and coming so severe and in a
season when the birds were intent on
nesting farther north it seemed to
have exterminated them entirely.
So seriously has the Government
taken this, that for years a standing
offer has been in vogue for $3,000
for a male and female passenger
pigeon. Up to this date no birds of
this specie have been delivered. The
last time wild pigeons nested in this
part of the State was the spring of
1882. For those not familiar with
the stupendous proposition of what
is known as a nesting place, I will
give you the dimensions of the one
last known of in this territory.
These birds were coming here in
streams for a week and the woods
which they occupied started at a
point on Crippen Run (near Germania
Station). From there it took in Ly-
man Run, Borbett, Cherry Springs,
with a continuation over the Jersey
Shore Turnpike to the very threshold
of Coudersport. Hunters came from
every point of the compass. They
did not hunt them, they slashed, shot
and did everything to exterminate
these beautiful, prolific and valuable
birds, which were never really appre-
ciated until they were gone.” Some
trees contained as many as 50 nests.
In such cases trees were chopped down
only to find a small number of squabs
that were at an age fit to use, others
were too young or there were eggs
In process of hatching. This meant
that 50 nests were destroyed in get-
ting a limited number of marketable
birds. They would in other cases
bump the trees to jar the young out
of their nests with the same result
mentioned ahove or shot into nests
with the object of getting the male
or female on the nest hatching. It
matters not what the cause of the
disappearance of these birds may have
been, there was no excuse for the pre-
mediated, murderous assault upon
them. Men left their farms. others
their shops to go pigeon hunting,
wagon loads were transported to ship-
ping points for New York or other
markets.
All ended
abandon their
when birds forced to
what were supposed to be civilized
hunters, who were in reality uncivil-
ized vandals. Now the writer does not
wish to convey the impression that al
who hunted were classed as heartless
but the greater part of them were.
which might be dangerously near un-
amimous. Now as to the reappear-
ance of the passenger pigeon—early
in April the writer saw what at first
looked like a pair of turtle doves.
When they came nearer and not fly-
ing higher than 50 or 0 feet, dis-
covered they were wild pigeons, male
and female. The former can be dis-
tinguished by the length of the tail
and also by a streamer feather on
each side of the tail. The fact of hav-
ing seen these birds was made known
to Col. Henry W. Shoemaker, cele-
brated historian of Pennsylvania.
Later there apneared in the Williams-
port Gazette & Bulletin an article
written by the well known taxider-
mist, Charles H. Eldon, of Williams-
port, stating that he had seen a male
wild pigeon on the road leading from
the main highway from Jersey Shore
to Lock Haven, to Woolrich; he said
he was close to the bird and that it
was a wild pigeon. So positive was he
that he and the party with him,
watched the place two or three days
hoping it would return.
In the meantime Col. Shoemaker
wrote the writer that in traveling
through a forest in Clearfield county
he had seen a wild vigeon. These re-
ports coming as they do, would tend
to show that there is a sound basis
for the fact that tbe return of these
birds is not unfounded, and if the
Government will make a special effort
to protect passenger pigeons there is
no doubt in the writer's mind they
will sooner or later be }
least in small numbers. Let all that
are interested in wild life, make it a
point to get interested in this matter
and by combined effort we might get
results, or at least help educate the
public not to kill these birds when
seen, but rather protect them.
The passenger pigeon, after mating
season, travel in pairs, male slightly
larger than the female, color dark
bluish drab with salmon colored downy
feathers under the wings; always
alert, looking for enemies and very
handsome and clean cut. The female
bird is the same color, but feathers
in tail much shorter with no stream-
ers in the tail as in that of the male.
They lay two eggs which invariably
hatch a male and a female. The time
required for incubation is 17 days.
They hatch two or three times during
the season. The search for food, or
in other words the distance they fiy
to obtain food for themselves and
with us, at |
atchii rare already
hatching grounds on | &.c 2 eady
account of the murderous methods of |
young takes in a radius of 100 miles
or more, scarcely ever feeding near
their nesting ground, which it is
claimed they hold for the young birds
after leaving the nest. They are ex-
ceptionally swift on the wing; in nor-
mal conditions of weather 60 miles
per hour is very ordinary.
In the thickest of nesting ground
it is next to impossible to hear any-
thing but the flutter of wings which
becomes most deafening and at the
nesting place little attention is paid
to the hunter, while at any other time
one could not get within rifle shot of
them. Like bees at a hive, they are
so busy at work that all danger is for-
gotten. In fall, at the migrating sea-
son, they travel in flocks of from one
hundred to a thousand and in some
cases flocks so large have descended
on fields of buckwheat that in a few
minutes they would devour every
grain in the field if not disturbed.
The great danger in the way of a
return of these birds is the hawk and
the hunter, many of the latter who
like the moonshiners of the south,
kill a stranger to ascertain whether
he is a Government agent or not. So
it is with some hunters, they kill the
pigeon to see whether it is really a
wild pigeon or not, but if all wild life
leagues will make it a point to edu-
cate the public, this in a great meas-
ure can be forestalled.—In “Wells-
boro Gazette.”
Chemists Ward off Starvation With
Their Discoveries.
All fears that the civilized race will
starve eventually through lack of
fertilizers for food production, or ap-
prehensions that gasoline supplies
will give out with exhaustion of pe-
troleum deposits, were cast aside by
leading chemists of the world who
are assembled on the campus of the
Pennsylvania State College in attend-
ance at the Institute of Chemistry
being held there by the American
Chemical Society.
Food from the air, literally, and
motor fuel from coal and gases,
were shown to be actual facts in re-
cent sessions of the Institute which
concludes its month of chemical de-
velopment discussions this week.
No longer need the United States
farmers depend upon Chili for ni-
trates for fertilizer, for it is now be-
ing manufactured right at home from
air and water cheaper than it can be
brought from South America; no
longer need the crop growers depend
upon Germany for potash, for depos-
its have been found in Texas; and
there is no further need for skimping
on Georgia phosphate, for the govern-
ment has located vast and almost un-
limited deposits in Wyoming, Idaho,
Montana and other western States,
according to chemists visiting at
State College.
There will be sufficient of these
three important fertilizers available
in the United States to last almost
indefinitely, the chemists declare. The
manufacture of nitrates with nitrogen
from the air has been developed to
such high degree of perfection that
so long as water power is available
nitrates will be supplied in any desir-
ed quantities. ~
And if food supplies ever do begin
to decrease, the chemists are ready to
put “synthetic” or artificial foods on
the market, such as milk, and beef-
steak substitute. But these will not
come until natural food prices become
so high that it will pay the chemists
to manufacture artificial foods.
Synthetic rubber, champhor and many
other articles are possible of manu-
facture, and artificial silk and wool
on the market. The
chemist has been hailed as a possible
war preventor, for nations without
certain necessary raw materials will
be able in the future to manufacture
them instead of fighting another na-
tion for possession of natural resourc-
es which they need but do not have in
their own territory.
Other developments during recent
sessions at State College included the
commercial develecpment of “dry ice”
or solid carbon dioxide gas, with
which ice cream can be shipped from
coast to coast with only a few small
Jumps to keep it far below the freez-
ing point; that the United States bas
a monopoly on fire proof helium gas
which should develop airships as a
safe and practicable means for air
transportation during the next ten
years; that “artificial rainbows”
with the use of a spectroscope will
rean better automobile engines for
the future, capable of giving 30 to 50
miles on a gallon of fuel; and that
Muscle Shoals power is too expensive
to use in profitable manufacture of
nitrate.
Aree.
Kill Horses for Insurance.
Smothering horses to death in order
to fraudulently collect insurance on
the animals constitutes the founda-
tion for an alleged horse killing ring
of Garfield county, Nebraska, which
farmers uncovered recently.
Five men have been arrested in
connection with the death of several
horses on which insurance later was
collected.
A unique plan was pursued in col-
lecting the insurance. Immediately
after a thunderstorm the stock would
be found dead, presumably struck by
lightning. The plan followed in kill-
ing the horses involved taking a large
inner tube of an automobile tire, seal-
ing an end and then drawing it over
the head of the victim animal.
According to one of the “inside” of
the scheme, this procedure would
smother the animal to death and the
tube would be removed, leaving no
mark. The men then would burn the
animal with a blow torch to simulate
lightning, later burning grass in the
immediate vicinity, to make the evi-
dence more realistic.
The ring leader of the group, an in-
vestigator said, was paying his ac-
complice $5 each for a “job,” which
included bunching several animals to-
gether, preferably near a wire fence,
to smother them to death and then ap-
ply the toreh.
Confessions are said to be in the
hands of the Farmers’ Mutual Insur-
ance Company, of Lincoln, Neb.,
which issued the policies.—Perry
County Democrat.
EXTINCTION OF EIDER
DUCK BLOCKED BY LAW
Staging a Comeback Under
Canadian Protection.
Washington.—Eider ducks, in the
shadow of extinction, are doing a
comeback, thanks to the protection of
the Canadian government, according
to the American Nature association.
This is the duck that plucks down
from her breast to keep her young
warm.
Arthur Newton Pack, associate edi-
tor of Nature Magazine, informed Vin-
cent Massey, Canadiar minister, he
had received a telegram fom Howard
H. Cleaves of the association at Wolf-
bay, Que., reporting on his investiga-
tion. The telegram from Cleaves
says:
“Eider ducks numerous along Ca-
nadian Labrador coast due to excel-
lent protection by the government. I
have seen more than 2,000 breeding
birds in ten days’ cruising. Hundreds
of them in each of four sanctuaries
cited to date. From one hilltop I saw
75. Nesting birds flew up on all side”
Icebergs Don't Bother Then
Despite lingering snow banks and
passing icebergs, some eiders have
hatched. This fine bird is making
wonderful recovery from shadow of
extinction ang with good weather
there will be a large increase this
year.”
“This is certainly good news,” Pack
wrote to Minister Massey, “and on be-
half of the thousands of members of
the American Nature association I
want to thank the Canadian govern-
ment.
“Eider ducks on the great breeding
grounds in Labrador were nearing ex-
tinction because of constant collection
of eggs and killing of adult birds for
their feathers and down. Before 1870
vessels were fitted out in New England
for this purpose.
“When there were young in the
aests the old birds were molting their
flight quills and unable to fly. Men
surrounded, drove them together and
killed them with clubs, leaving the
helpless young to perish. All this for
feathers alone, for the birds had no
food value.
Import Eiderdown.
“I'or a number of years this went
on until the birds were so reduced as
to make feather hunting unprofitable.
During this time and ever since egg-
ers, fishermen and settlers have de-
stroyed both birds and eggs until the
vast eider nurseries are a mere mem-
ory and we are importing our eider-
down from the more humane people
of the Old world.
“In Norway and Iceland, where
these birds are protected, they be-
come almost as tame as domesticated
fowls, nesting places are made in the
turf or among stones and some of
them even nest on the sod roofs of
houses.
Actor, Telepathist,
Reads Court’s Mind
New York.—With absolutely nothing
up his sleeve and no confederates in
the house, Joseph Dunninger, a vaude-
ville mind reader, told Magistrate Ma-
crery in raflic court that the magis-
trate was going to sentence him to
pay £5 or spend two days in jail for
parking on West Forty-seventh street
during the theater hour.
Ile was right.
The magistrate, not above conduct- |
mg a scientific experiment to liven
the tedium of the Traffic court, de-
cided that he would give his public a
demonstration as to whether a mind
reader is or isn't.
“You are thinking, ‘Don’t park your
¢ar near theaters in the rush hour,”
the telepathic parker tobd the magis-
trate.
“What is the sentence I am about
70 give you?’ he inquired, as if he
were asking Dunninger what is the
number of the gentleman's gold watch
and is the little lady going to marry
the young man she is keeping com
pany with. Will you concentrate,
please?”
“I"ive dollars or two days in jail,”
quoth the mind reader mournfully.
British Service Men
Make Cloth for Frocks
f.ondon.—Disabled former service
men are engaged in decorating fine
cloth for rest gowns, day frecks and
evening gowns.
Princess Mary has bought three
dress lengths of the decorated cloth
known as “painted fabric.”
One is of the seft blue inlet with lav-
ender panels, having a hyacinth and
lavender crocus border painted up
from the hem of the skirt. Another
dress length is in rose pink with a
medieval painted design. Princess
Mary also bought an apricet-colored
shawl with the same type of work.
Turkish Dogs Spend
Summer on Boats
Scutari, Turkey.—In Turkish vil-
lages along the Bosporus a dog’s life
is that of a sailor.
When a village becomes ‘“over-
hounded” with street dogs the village
fathers, loath to kill, as the Koran dic-
tates kindness to animals, charter a
ferry boat and ship a load of dog
derelicts across the straits to some
village on the opposite shore. The
villngers on the other side ferry them
back, adding a quota of their own.
The original exporters retaliate, and
thus a game of battledore and shuttle-
ces yearly between Europe
cock w
end Asia,
tance.
usually consist of colored dust, vol-
HOW TO SOLVE A CROSS-WORD PUZZLE
When the correct letters are placed in the white spaces this puzzle will
spell words both vertically and horizontally. The first letter in each word Is
indicated by a number, which refers to
the definition listed below the puzzle.
Thus No. 1 under the column headed “horizontal” defines a word which will an
{the white spaces up to the first black square to the right, and a number under
“yertical” defines a word which will fill the white squares to the next black one
below.
No letters go in the black spaces.
All words used are dictionary words,
| except proper names. Abbreviations, slang, initials, technical terms and obso-
| lete forms are indicated in the definitions.
CROSS-WORD PUZZLE No. 1.
3 |4
51
5
(©, 1926, Western Newspaper Union.)
Horizontal.
1—Fat 5—Separated
9—Kind of fuel used in British Isles
11—One of Adam’s sons (Bib.)
12-——That thing
'14—Part of a gun
18—Note of scale
17-—Condensed vapor
19—River of England
20—Beverage 21—Makes a mistake
23—Before (poetic) 24—Only
i25—Peppermint candies
27—Salute of guns
/29—Born 830—TIs owing
31—One who acts for another
133—To be mentally perturbed
,35—To state 36—Boy’s name
|38—One who regulates his attitude
| toward a person according to
| the latter's station in society
| 40—Conjunction 41—Chalirs
43—To bring suit 44—Half an em
45—Stinging insects
47—Sun god 43—Helps
|49—Part of a track
{61—Oklahoma city
62—Boasts
Vertical.
2—Preposition
4—To separate
1—Conceit
3—Encountered
5—To encourage
6—Preflx meaning through
7—Boy’s name 8—String
10—Becomes weary
11—Girl’s name
15—German (abbr.)
16—Storage place for silage
18—Clothes washing accessory
20—Rules 22—A gibe
24—Disparages
26—Number under twelve
28—Fuss 31—River in England
32—Rows 33—~Colorless fluid
34—Personal possessive pronoun :
13—Semester
36—Concerning 37—Hastened
39—Nib of a bird (pl.)
41—Beverage 42—To knife
45—Belonging to him
46—Man’s title 48—Boy’'s name
50—Note of scale
Solution will appear in next issue.
Queer Things From the Sky.
No belief is more firmly fixed than
that frogs, small fish, snakes, angle-
worms, turtles, insects and other
small creatures are drawn up into the
clouds by the sun and later rained
down upon the earth. Any thinking
man knows that the sun, which can .
not vaporize the salt in the ocean and |
carry it into the clouds, cannot pick |
up small animals and hold them float-
ing in the atmosphere. The presence
of these creatures on the ground im-
mediately after a shower is probably !
due to one of two reasons. In the
case of frogs, worms, turtles and in-
sects, they were probably there before
the rain and the downpour stimulated
them into activity.
In the case of fish and some other !
creatures it is quite possible, scien- !
tists explain, for a waterspout of sy-
clonic whirlwind to scoop up a pond
and it’s contents and deposit it at a
distant point, just as it will carry
pebbles and pieces of wood a long dis-
So-called “blood showers”
canic ash or plant pollen in the rain-
drops.—The Pathfinder.
Prepares Book on Europe.
Publication of the 1927 edition of
his “Satchel Guide to Europe” has |
just been announced by Dr. W. D.
Solution to Last Week’s Puzzle.
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Crockett, head of the Latin depart-
ment at the Pennsylvania State Col-
lege, and one of the best posted
Americans on European travel. The
book, which is published by Houghton
Mifflin Company, is the 47th annual
editien, and is being used by hundreds
of Americans traveling this summer
in Europe. An outstanding addition
| this year is a chapter on travel by
"air which Dr. Crockett declares to be
“convenient, comfortable and safe.”
——The Watchman publishes news
when it is news. Read it.
Faulty
Elimination
Should Be Corrected—Good Elimination
Is Essential to Good Health.
F you would be well, see to your
elimination. Faulty kidney ac-
tion permits toxic material to re-
main in the blood and upset the
whole system. Then, one is apt to
have a tired, languid feeling and,
sometimes, a toxic backache or head-
ache, and often some irregularity of
secretions, such as scanty-or burn-
ing passages. More and more people
are acclaiming the value of Doan’s
Pills, a stimulant diuretic, in this
condition. For more than forty years
Doan’s have been winning favor the
country over. Ask your neighbor!
DOAN’ PILLS
60c
Stimulant Diuretic to the Kidneys
Foster-Milburn Co., Mfg. Chem., Buffalo, N. ¥.
Meats,
Whether they be fresh,
smoked or the cold-ready to
serve—products, are always
the choicest when they are
purchased at our Market.
We buy nothing but prime
stock on the hoof, kill and re-
frigerate it ourselves and we
know it is good because we
have had years of experience
in handling meat products.
sacs an,
Orders by telephone always receive
prompt attention.
Telephone 450
P. L. Beezer Estate
Market on the Diamond
BELLEFONTE, PA.
34-34
Insurance
i
FIRE LIFE ACCIDENT
AUTOMOBILE WINDSTORM
BURGLARY PLATE GLASS
LIABILITY OF ALL KINDS
SURETY BONDS EXECUTED
Hugh M. Quigley
Successor to H. E. FENLON
Temple Court,
Bellefonte, Penna.
71-33-tf
CHICHESTER S PILLS
Ladies! Ask your Druggist foe-
Chi-ches-ter s Diamond Bran
Pills in Red and Gold metallic
boxes, sealed with Blue Ribbon.
Take no other. Buy of you
Druggist. Ask for LONER ER
DIAMOND BRAND PILLS,
years known as Best, Safest, Always Reliable
SOLD BY DRUGGISTS EVERYWHERE
SE
°
(77
I
ance, yet which is
OTHERS buying Shoes for their
children of school age ask for
and have a right to expect foot-
wear that is neat and dressy in appear-
so well constructed
that it will give long service.
Bush Arcade
Bellefonte, Pa.
We Ask you to Put Our
School Shoes to this Test