Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1910 — ILLINOIS BIRD KING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ILLINOIS BIRD KING.

Merchant Who la Friend of Feathered Tribes Owns Fine Collection. Illinois’ bird king is a dry goods merchant, Isaac E. Hess of Philo. He is one of the greatest authorities on ornithology and his collection of stuffed birds, their nests and eggs, is one of the finest in existence. l4>r thirty years he has made a study of the feathered songsters of the air and is their staunch defender. Mr. Hess has for years agitated a closed season on quail shooting lasting for several years. He believes that these birds are the best friends of the farmers and that the “Bob Whites” should be protected from the annual slaughter. He has written a number ’ of articles defending his position and has sought *to arouse the Legislature to the importance of this protection. Two broods are raised annually by this species, and if undisturbed woll breed rapidly. A single pair, if not interfered with, will produce 600 young birds in three

years. He computes each pair of quail as worth $5 annually to the farmer in destroying insects. The persecuted hawk family is also being championed by the Philo enthusiast. He has discovered that for every hawk that destroys poultry there are 100 that subsist upon field mice, insects and other small enemies of the farmer. Thousands of hawks are killed every year because of ignorance and prejudice. While studying the beautiful rosebreasted grosbeak, one of the handsomest birds known to the United States, Mr. Hess discovered a strange mystery of nature. He learned to his intense surprise that the grosbeak is the only bird that will eat the potato bug. Students of nature and bird lovers in particular who have inspected the collection of birds, nests and eggs, gathered and classified by Mr. Hess, agree that it is one of the finest in America. One case contains eighty birds with the nests and eggs of each species, every one of which were collected within a few miles of his home. A second case contains 120 specimens secured in other sections of the country. The eggs range from the large mottled type of the vulture to the minute humming bird. Every hour that he can spafh from business Mr. Hess devotes to bird lore. He is constantly photographing his feathered friends, never kills one wantonly, but is constantly trying to save them from destruction. He has learned that Illinois alone contains more than 100 specimens of birds that annually nest in this State, and it has been an enormous task to procure a specimen of each with Its nest and eggs.

HESS AND SOME OF HIS EXHIBITS.