CHAPTER IV 



DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS BY MAN 



Savage tribes not influenced by civilization 

 seldom cause a serious decrease in the numbers 

 of birds about them. They usually kill only 

 what they need for their own immediate use — as 

 food and clothing and to a smaller extent orna- 

 ment, and even though they may not be re- 

 strained by feelings of humanity or a desire to be 

 provident, their weapons are usually so crude 

 that they cannot inflict wholesale destruction 

 upon any species. Sometimes, as in the case of 

 the Esquimaux, they gather large quantities of 

 th^e eggs of certain kinds of birds, but usually 

 these birds are present in such vast numbers, the 

 Esquimau population is so small, and the other 

 bird enemies so few, that no noticeable impres- 

 sion is made upon the colonies of little auks and 

 other birds whose eggs are taken. 



But when civilized man creates a market for 

 the flesh or plumage of the birds hunted by the 

 savage, the latter is often urged to help to 



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