192 Bird -Lore 



ment as to the character and extent of the more marked changes which have 

 taken place in the bird-life there during the past fifty years. 



In recording these changes, care is taken to exclude any statements that 

 might in the least degree be influenced by any of the "well-known illusions 

 which are familiar to the psychologist"*, and to cite only the most obvious 

 facts. For example: There can be no illusion of perception or memory involved 

 in the statement that very much less than fifty years ago it was hardly possible, 

 in the region of which I am writing, for one to go even a short distance from 

 the towns without seeing one or more flocks of Wild Turkeys; and that in 

 October or November Wild Pigeons were to be seen by thousands or even 

 millions, while now both species are absolutely gone; that each spring or fall, 

 less than fifty years ago, countless flocks of Wild Geese or Ducks passed over 

 in their migrations, and the loud trumpeting of Whooping and Sandhill Cranes 

 was a familiar sound; while now all these birds are but a memory, except for 

 a few, probably less than ten per cent (possibly not more than one per cent) 

 of the Ducks and Geese; that Blue Jays and Bronzed Grackles are at least as 

 numerous as they were fifty years ago; that the introduction, less than forty 

 years ago, and extraordinary increase of the European House Sparrow have 

 resulted in practical banishment from their former close association with human 

 abodes of the Bluebird, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, and Cliff Swallow; or 

 that the spontaneous advent (not earlier than the year 1869) of the House 

 Wren has caused a great diminution in numbers and an irregular distribution 

 of the once abundant and ubiquitous Bewick's Wren. 



There are many other more or less marked changes in the bird-life of 

 Southern Illinois, which, though not so conspicuous as those just mentioned, 

 are nevertheless equally certain. 



The principal factors responsible for the marked disturbance of the 'Bal- 

 ance of Nature,' so far as bird-life is involved, are evidently the following: 



(i) Shooting. — The game laws of Illinois (as in many other States), are not 

 only defective but poorly administered, as must necessarily be the case so 

 long as either the framing of the laws or their enforcement is connected with 

 politics. It is very doubtful, however, whether any law, even if rigidly enforced, 

 short of absolute prohibition of shooting for a term of years, can save the 

 remaining game birds from extermination for any considerable time. The 

 number of gunners is out of all proportion to the number of birds that remain, 

 and the yearly increase of the latter is more than balanced by the annual 

 slaughter. 



Game birds which have been completely exterminated within the past 

 fifty years are the Passenger Pigeon, Wild Turkey, and Ruffed Grouse; pos- 

 sibly also the Whooping and Sandhill Cranes, and Trumpeter Swan. Those 

 which are near the verge of extermination are the Bob- White, Prairie Chicken, 

 Upland Plover, and the various Ducks and Geese. 



*See Professor Munsterberg's letter, previously cited. 



