VOL. I1.] Reed Birds of the Markets. | 143 
birds,” the flesh of which is rather light-colored, tender, and the 
_ birds often fat. They may be known from others by the long claw 
to the hind toe. Fifteen years or more ago this bird was almost 
the only species killed for this purpose, but the long-continued, per- 
sistent slaying of this species, together with the increase of settle- 
ment, making it necessery to journey farther after them, has result- 
ed in the substitution of most any other species of about the same 
size in place of them, and as the birds are always dressed before 
being brought to the dealers, who cannot distinguish between Ofo- 
coris, Zonotrichia and others, they answer the contemptible purpose 
for which they were killed —a fashionable dish in a cosmopolitan 
restaurant, or on a foreign family’s table. 
It is directly due to foreign taste that this slaughter of small birds 
has existed and to the game and fish commission of California that 
it continues, for surely no one who has often visited the ,markets 
can have failed to notice one to ten dozen small birds upon the 
marble counters of game and poultry stalls. 
Among the species which are destroyed by pot-hunters are horn- 
ed larks ( Ovocoris), several species of sparrows belonging to the 
genera Zonotrichia (two species), and more rarely Melospiza and 
Ammodramus, house finches ( Carpodacus) are notable victims, and 
occasionally goldfinches (.Spznus ) belonging to two or three species 
have been seen in one lot with birds as large as blackbirds ( Agelaius 
and Scolecophagus ), which represent the maximum size of a ‘‘reed 
bird,’’ while goldfinches are as small as any that have yet been 
sold. 
It is somewhat surprising that the detested house sparrows from 
Europe have not shared the same fate with native birds, but the so- 
called English sparrow is a wary bird (when his destruction is de- 
sired) and is confined more to the limits of cities and towns, and 
moreover his flesh is not considered as dainty and delicate as the 
others, while a knowledge of his feeding habits may prejudice some. 
More rarely sandpipers ( 7ringa minutilla and Ereunetes occi- 
dentalis ) are resorted to in order to supply the markets with “reed 
birds,” but the dealers say that the ‘‘sandpeeps’’ are ‘‘too strong”’ 
and do not give satisfaction to their patrons. 
The prices at which these birds sell are from twenty-five to fifty 
cents a “stick” in the markets, being at the rate of fifty cents to a 
dollar a dozen, although I have known them as low as thirty-five 
cents a dozen and they rarely exceed one dollar. 
