^irb N^tus 



Devoted to the Interests of the Bird Fancier 



Volume I. 



NOyEMBER-DECEMBER, 1909 



Slumber 6 



The Murder of the Innocents. 



The innate desire to kill is surely 

 a remnant of the descent of man. 

 The persistence of the attribute is 

 not complimentary to the much 

 claimed "higher development." It 

 is to be regretted that "sport" and 

 barbarity are well nigh akin. Mr. 

 William T. Hornaday, of the New 

 York Zoological Society in a recent 

 number of Collier's, makes some very 

 strong protests against the "do-as-I- 

 damn-please spirit which is destined 

 within a few years to produce a 

 barren and gameless America." 



For the protection of wild life, a 

 republican form of government is un- 

 questionably the worst in the world. 

 Thanks to the lawless element now 

 becoming so dominant in this coun- 

 try, our once prized "freedom" has 

 already become a Dead Sea apple. 



Persons who have not specially 

 looked into the matter have not the 

 faintest conception of the power and 

 deadliness of the forces that constan- 

 tly are warring upon wild life. In 

 the United States, so I have been 

 told by a very competent authority, 

 about five hundred thousand shot- 

 guns are sold annually, and about 

 seven million loaded cartridges. Per- 

 haps three million cartridges are re- 

 loaded annually. Of this enormous 

 output, perhaps one-tenth are used 

 on clay pigeons; and the remainder, 

 whatever it may be, is aimed at wild 

 life. A very effective breech-loading 

 shotgun of Belgian make can be pur- 

 chased for five dollars, and no alien 

 laborer who desires to kill our song- 

 birds for food is too poor to buy one! 



Throughout North America gener- 

 ally, what are the principal factors 

 in the destruction of wild life? It 

 it easy to catalogue them, in the 

 order of their deadliness. Here they 

 are: 



1. The "resident" pot-hunters, who 

 kill game all the year round, part 

 of the time for sale, and part of 

 the time to save butcher's bills. 



2. The commercial killers, who 

 slaughter to secure salable plumes, 

 hides, teeth, oil, fertilizers, or other 

 products. 



3. The sportsman, who shoot ac- 

 cording to law, but kill to the limit 

 that the law allows, regardless of the 

 future. 



4. Wanton destroyers generally, 

 who kill wild creatures because they 

 can, regardless of reason or decency. 



The passenger pigeon is gone for- 

 ever. 



The heath hen (of Massachusetts) 

 may be blotted out any year. 



The pinnated grouse of the West 

 now exists in a few localities only. 



The splendid sage grouse is fast 

 being shot off the cattle plains and 

 soon will disappear. 



The great whooping crane is very 

 nearly extinct. 



The trumpeter swan is so nearly 

 extinct that skins are not procurable. 



The California condor will last 

 about twenty years longer. 



The Labrador duck and great auk 

 are quite extinct. 



The "plume birds" of Florida are 

 Init little more than memory; and 

 so are the scarlet ibis, roseate spoon- 

 bill, and flamingo. 



The wild life of any country is the 



