The Audubon Societies 



275 



and, securing all the available facts, laid 

 the matter before the State Game and 

 Fish Commission, with the result that, 

 in the end, Stevens was prosecuted and 

 fined $ioo, this being the full limit 

 of the law for killing five English Starl- 

 ings. In addition to these birds, Stevens 

 admitted to the shooting of a total of 

 twenty-three English Sparrows, birds 

 which are not protected by law. At this 

 time there appears to be no evidence that 

 any Crackles or Robins were killed, 

 although it was widely reported that such 

 was the case. Stevens took an appeal 

 and the case will go up to the Court of 

 Common Pleas of Essex County for 

 further hearing. 



The most significant feature connected 

 with the Montclair incident is the per- 

 fect storm of protest which it has aroused 

 throughout the country. The press, in 

 its condemnation, has characterized the 

 killing as "unnecessary slaughter," 

 "butchery" and "inhuman." One paper 

 refers to the "Barbarians of Mont- 

 clair." A large number of letters have 

 reached this office from persons who 

 entered most earnest protests against 

 the "needless kiUing" of the birds. It 

 all bespeaks a widespread and pro- 

 found interest in the cause of bird pro- 

 tection. 



Ten years ago, the killing of a thousand 

 birds would scarcely have caused more 

 than a passing notice in a local paper. 

 The change of sentiment for bird preser- 

 vation is an evidence of the rapidly in- 

 creasing refinement of sentiment that 

 comes with advancing civilization. It 

 is a most positive fact that, the more 

 cultured the community, the greater is 

 the esteem in which the wild bird is 

 held.— T. G. P. 



The Flocking Problem 



Apropos of the flocking of birds to 

 Montclair, for the purpose of roosting 

 near human inhabitants, attention is 

 called to the fact that this habit on the 

 part of birds is not confined to one New 

 Jersey town, but is more or less pre- 



valent throughout the country. The 

 fact that the birds often accumulate in 

 such numbers as to annoy the residents 

 of a town presents a problem to which 

 bird lovers should give careful consider- 

 ation. Every little while such a case is 

 brought to our attention. For example, 

 a dispatch to the Hudson (N. Y.) 'Re- 

 publican,' from Hoyleton, Illinois, under 

 date of August 30, 191 1, gives the fol- 

 lowing information regarding the efiforts 

 made to rid that western town from what 

 the people evidently regard as a scourge 

 of Bronzed Crackles. 



"The residents of this town spent the 

 greater part of the night in an effort to 

 exterminate Blackbirds, which have dis- 

 turbed the sleep of the villagers for many 

 nights. 



"It was estimated that more than a 

 million birds have nested in and around 

 the village, and thousands of these al- 

 ready have been killed. Every sort of 

 weapon imaginable was used in the battle." 



Illinois, in common with a number of 

 other states, does not protect by statutory 

 enactment the "Crow Blackbirds," be- 

 cause of an ill-founded belief that the 

 birds are of immense damage to growing 

 crops. On the other hand, economic 

 ornithologists who have studied the feed- 

 ing habits of these birds agree that the 

 service which they render the farmer in 

 destroying injurious insects far outweighs 

 the amount of harm done by them. 

 The prejudice against Blackbirds is of 

 long standing, and it may be many years 

 yet before these much-abused birds are 

 given the protection which they so richly 

 deserve. 



The early inhabitants of New England 

 felt that they had a grievance against 

 the Blackbirds for eating the corn in 

 the fields; so laws were passed offering 

 "a bounty of three pence a dozen for 

 dead maize thieves." Dr. Benjamin 

 Franklin is quoted by Peter Kalm, a 

 Swedish naturalist, as saying that the 

 Blackbirds were thus almost extermi- 

 nated, "but, as in the summer of the year 

 1749 an immense quantity of worms ap- 

 peared in the meadows, which destroyed 



