A Book on Birds 



of the City Hall, in Philadelphia. You will 

 find him in a well-appointed office of his 

 own away down amidst the mighty founda- 

 tions, and he will tell you a most pathetic 

 tale, running over a long period, of how his 

 lofty circle of flaming lamps has wrought 

 ruin to the birds of passage every year. 



His men have found as many as one hun- 

 dred and fifty-four dead or dying upon the 

 pavement below of a single morning; and 

 the total, since he has kept a record of 

 them, has run up into the thousands, 

 including about eighty different varieties, 

 and over twenty kinds of Wood Warblers 

 alone. 



Moving through the air at a great speed 

 even at night — as most birds do, some going 

 as fast as a hundred miles an hour — the 

 sudden blaze of light across their path at 

 the tower bhnds them so that they fail to 

 see the grim and solid structure in the 

 midst and are dashed against it. Most of 

 them are killed outright, either by the 

 force of collision or the fall to the ground 

 in their stunned condition from so great 



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