194 Bird - Lore 



both Ihese conditions are removed. The dropping or turning loose of cats or 

 icittens not wanted in the home should be prohibited by law, and the pro- 

 hibition enforced with severe penalties; and bird-dogs should be restrained 

 from running at large during the breeding-season. 



(5) Wanton killing of birds by boys. — -The very common* practice of boys, 

 especially town boys, of killing birds as an amusement or pastime is a more 

 serious factor in the diminution of bird-life than many persons suppose, or 

 are willing to admit. It is usually the tamer or more attractive birds that 

 suffer from this cause, such as the Cardinal, Bluebird, Catbird, Robin, and 

 Baltimore Oriole, though no bird is exempt. I have even heard (on good 

 authority) of men shooting birds for fish-bait, and of one young man who daily 

 visited a grove in the edge of the town to shoot birds for his cat! 



(6) Spraying of Orchards. — To what extent the spraying of orchards has 

 to do with decreasing bird-life I have no positive information. I only know 

 that during my boyhood days orchards were the most prolific, and therefore 

 my favorite, bird-nesting places. A majority of the trees in any orchard, no 

 matter its extent, would contain at least one bird's nest, occasionally four or 

 five. Of late years, I have repeatedly gone carefully through similar orchards 

 without finding a nest on more than one tree in fifty, sometimes none at all. 

 Furthermore, in former years the orchards fairly swarmed in blossoming-time 

 with migrant Warblers, busily engaged in catching insects among the flowers; 

 while of late years few, sometimes none, of these birds are to be found there. 



(7) Temporary Causes. — (See note below on the Turkey Buzzard.) 



(8) Unknown Causes. — (See note on the Dickcissel and Baltimore Oriole.) 

 In conclusion, the following observations on a few particular species which 



have changed their status during the past fifty years may be of interest. 



(a) Species which have become quite exterminated. 



Wild Turkey {Meleagris gallopavo silvestris). 



Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus). 



Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) . 



Besides these, two other species had become extinct earlier than fifty years 

 ago: the Louisiana Paroquetf (Conurus carolinensis ludovicianus) , of which the 

 last were seen at Mt. Carmel, on the Wabash, in 1861 or 1862, when a flock 

 flew over the common near the river, and the Ivory-billed Woodpecker {Cam- 

 pephilus principalis), which disappeared nearly ten years earlier. 



*The adjective is used after due consideration, for I have never yet been so fortunate 

 as to be in a community where the practice in question was not a more or less common one. 

 In the town from which this is written (a place of more than s,ooo inhabitants), boys may be 

 seen daily along the principal residence streets killing birds with air-rifle, 'cat'-rifie, or bean- 

 shooter, or destroying their nests, even invading private grounds against the useless protests 

 of the owners. The conditions here are probably exceptional only to the extent that no effort 

 whatever is made by "the authorities" to enforce the laws against killing song or insectivorous 

 birds, or the shooting of firearms within the corporate limits. 



jA race of the Carolina Paroquet which formerly inhabited the Mississippi Valley. 



