Bird-Life in Southern Illinois 193 



(2) Decrease in number and extent of shelter and nesting areas. — Continued 

 clearing of woodlands, drainage of swamps and marshes, and removal of trees, 

 shrubbery and weedy growths from roadsides and fence-lines, have destroyed 

 just so much of the area required by birds for nesting-places, shelter, and 

 food. 



(3) Introduction and naturalization of the European House Sparrow. — 

 The amazing increase of the so-called English Sparrow has profoundly dis- 

 turbed the 'balance' of bird-life. Although introduced less than forty years 

 ago, this species is now, without question, by far the most numerous bird in 

 the region of which I write, even if it does not exceed in numbers all the 

 native small passerine birds combined, not only in the towns but on the farms 

 as well. The effect on native birds is exceedingly well marked, for the foreign 

 pest has literally crowded out, or by its aggressive meddlesomeness driven 

 away, from the abodes of man, those charming and useful native birds, the 

 Bluebird, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, and Cliff Swallow. None of the 

 native species like its company, and, in winter, when one wishes to feed the 

 Cardinals, Juncos, and other native birds, it is necessary to feed many times 

 as many of those pernicious pests, thus vastly increasing both the trouble 

 and the expense. 



(4) Destruction by feral house cats and self-hunting bird-dogs. — The long- 

 established practice of getting rid of surplus cats by carrying them, in bag, 

 basket or box, outside the towns, and turning them loose to shift for them- 

 selves, has resulted in stocking practically every piece of woodland with these 

 arch-enemies of bird-life, which, hiding in the thickets by day, roam every- 

 where at night, and destroy countless numbers of birds. As an example of the 

 extent to which the country is infested with these creatures, it may be stated 

 that the owner of a sixty-acre tract of woodland adjoining Bird Haven informed 

 me that his boys never ran the dogs at night in these woods for 'possums and 

 coons,' without treeing half a dozen to a dozen or more cats. This piece of 

 woodland is about two miles from town, and its feline population is the gradual 

 accretion of town cats "dumped" by their owners outside the corporation, 

 together with their progeny. It is of course difficult to estimate the extent to 

 which these practically wild cats are responsible for the present relative 

 scarcity of birds, but it must, from the very nature of the case, be a most 

 important factor. 



Less destructive, only because less general, are the raids of "self-hunting" 

 bird-dogs (pointers and setters), which, during the breeding-season, beat back 

 and forth across the fields, covering every square rod of ground, and locating, 

 by sense of smell, every nest of Bob-white, Meadowlark, or other ground- 

 nesting species, and forthwith devouring the eggs or young. Many times have 

 I seen them thus engaged, and a pair of them (a pointer and a setter) used to 

 pass my house daily on their way to the fields outside of town. 



Preservation of our game and other birds certainly cannot be elTected unksg 



