138 



Bird- Lore 



Tliere are several plans now uiuier coiisiil- 

 eration, some of wliicii it is hoped will be 

 successful. We need ail the literature 

 bearing on our cause that any Society or 

 person can send us. 



S.\R.\n L. Pi'TNAM, Secretary. 



Audubon Society of Missouri 



Under the auspices of its president, Mr. 

 Walter J. Blakely, and secretary, Mr. 

 August Reese, tiiis Society has been con- 

 ducting a careful investigation of the true 

 condition of animal life in Missouri, at the 

 same time endeavoring to find the cause of 

 the too-evident decrease. The result is 

 issued in a four-page circular containing 

 both the questions put to various observers 

 and the answers, — market and plume- 

 hunters, boys who shoot, and the non- 

 enforcement of the law, bearing the blame 

 in this as in other states. 



The following quotations, conclusions and 

 suggestions are pertinent and suggestive o^ 

 the conditions existing, though unacknowl- 

 edged in many other states, for even where 

 satisfactory bird laws obtain their enforce- 

 ment is too often regarded as fanaticism. 



"Reports furnished us, unquestionably 

 reliable and accurate, almost stagger human 

 belief. It proves that song and insectivorous 

 birds decreased 62 per cent and game birds 

 at the appalling rate of nearly 80 per cent 

 within the past fifteen 3'ears. Deer are 

 practically exterminated, excepting in a few- 

 inaccessible regions. Does any person 

 doubt, unless sweeping reforms are in- 

 augurateci at once, that a few years hence 

 will not witness the total annihilation of our 

 birds and game ? 



" Market and Plume-hunters. In study- 

 ing these reports, we find it an indisputable 

 fact that the market and plume-hunter stands 

 preeminent and alone as the greatest factor 

 in the destruction of our birds and game. 

 He simply reaps nature's products, slays 

 whatever is of an\' commercial value to him 

 in and out of season and does not consider 

 the reproduction of the different species of 

 any consequence and importance. 



" Sportsmen. Numerous reports, from cer- 

 tain districts of the state where game is still 

 fairly numerous, denounce in forcible lan- 

 guage the enormous slaughter of game 

 and birds by would-be sportsmen, simply 

 liecause the opportunities to kill presented 

 themselves. A true sportsman does not 

 pride liimself on the amount of game killed. 



but practices moderation and deplores wan- 

 ton destruction and waste. He is a lover 

 of nature's creations, a close observer of an 

 ever-changing landscape; the giants of the 

 forest, the murmuring of a silvery stream, 

 the camp meal at the mouth of some spark- 

 ling spring are closely associated with and 

 play an important role in his pleasures and 

 recreations a-fielil. 



■' Boys lyiio Shoot. The outcry against tiie 

 havoc wrought by boys persecuting and kill- 

 ing liirds, especialK' in or nearcities, is ver\" 

 general anci bitter. Probably no other 

 agency of destruction has contributed so 

 largelv to the absence of birds so necessary 

 to the animation of suburban landscape. 

 With the opening of spring, heralded by 

 the arrival of our feathered friends who have 

 come to greet us with their cheerful songs 

 and twitter, an arm\' of boys will be found 

 with bean-shooters or rifles eager to kill 

 whatever birds may be in sight. Relentlessly 

 are thev persecuted, until it appears as if all 

 birds f-.ad \anished from the face of the 

 earth. Thickets and meadows are searched 

 for the homes of the nesting birds and eggs 

 collected and destroyed. ' Not that they are 

 willfully wicked or cruel, but because they 

 are thoughtless, and have not been properly 

 taught or trained. ' 



" Eni^llsli S/>arro^vs. The English Spar- 

 rows have increased remarkably. Accord- 

 ing to reports, the\' are the arch enemies of 

 those birds most useful to agric-ulture. They 

 wage an incessant war against all birds that 

 are inclined to make their homes with us. 

 Various methods have been employed to 

 check and diminish their numbers, but un- 

 successfully. Recently, farmers in adjoining 

 townships in Ohio inaugurated a side hunt, 

 with the result that o\er three tons of Spar- 

 rows were killed. It seems that this methoil 

 may be adopted elsewhere, with beneficial 

 results. 



" Non-enforcement of the Game La-ivs. 

 Great indignation is expressed at the non- 

 enforcement of existing game laws. It is 

 reported that they are violated openly and 

 with impunity, and prosecutions have been 

 made only in a few cases. This has been 

 the indirect cause of greatly reducing the 

 inhabitants of our forests and fields. 

 Furthermore, existing game laws are very 

 unsatisfactorv to a majority of the sportsmen 

 and persons ha\ing the welfare of our birds 

 and game at heart, and they express their 

 ciesire that the next Legislature will exercise 

 due diligence in enacting more compre- 

 hensive and eflfective, yet liberal bird, and 

 game laws. It is a recognized fact through- 

 out the country that the fundamental 

 principle of all bird- and game-protection is 

 effective bird anif game laws and their 

 enforcement. 



