262 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



A few years ago tlie Committee on Bird Protection of the 

 American Ornithologist's Union issued an appeal in which 

 occurs this paragraph : 



" So long as the demand continues, the supply will come. 

 Law of itself can he of little, perhaps of no ultimate avail. 

 It may give check, but this tide of destruction it is powerless 

 to stay. The demand will be met ; the offenders will find it 

 worth while to dare the law. Only one thing will stop the 

 cruelty, — the disapprobation of fashion. It is our women 

 who hold the great power. Let our women say the word, 

 and hundreds of thousands of birds' lives will be preserved 

 every year. And until woman does use her influence it is 

 vain to hope that this nameless sacrifice will cease until it has 

 worked out its own end and the birds are gone." 



The destruction of the smaller birds for food is much 

 greater than is commonly supposed. It is due not so much 

 to the demand created by native white Americans, as by the 

 foreigners in the North and negroes in the South. During the 

 migrations to and from the southern regions, enormous num- 

 bers of birds which are commonly considered non-edible are 

 killed for food. In the larger cities hundreds of such victims 

 were formerly sold. Besides the reed-birds, robins, meadow- 

 larks, and blackbirds that one would expect might be found, 

 there were woodpeckers, thrushes, sparrows, warblers, wax- 

 wings, and vireos. An interesting example has been reported 

 by Mr. Walter E. Bryant in the case of the " reed-birds " of 

 San Francisco markets. " For years there have been exposed 

 for sale small California birds, picked, and six of them ranged 

 side by side with a skewer running through them. These are 

 sold as "reed-birds," though, of course, they are not the 

 Eastern bobolink, Avhich does not occur in California. They 

 are most commonly the horned lark (Ofocoris)^ but there may 

 often be found on the skewers housefinches, goldfinches, 

 various sparrows (except the English variety), blackbirds, and 

 sand-pipers. Many thousands of birds are thus destroyed 



