THE OOLOGIST 



31 



though I was not forming a collection 

 at the time. I had not then become a 

 reader of the OoLOGi&x.aud I only knew 

 that I had made a great tind, and could 

 now furnish to some fauious institution 

 a veritable nest and set of eggs of the 

 far-famed Ruby-throat. I had previous- 

 ly corresponded with the Smithsonian 

 Institution concerning the Reports 

 which are frequently sent out, but had 

 been informed that back reports could 

 not be furnished me. I now felt that I 

 Held the key to the situation, for I 

 would immediatel}' write them propos- 

 ing the exchange of the nest and eggs 

 for the reports I wanted. No joke in- 

 tended, Mr. Editor, for such was my 

 lamentable ignorance two years ago in 

 regard to desiderata. However, I am 

 happy to say that I received light on 

 the subject before the learned gentle- 

 men of the Institution heard from me. 



Before beginning this article, I wrote 

 3uy subject, Wise and Otherwise, in- 

 tending to give the most of my atten- 

 tion to the first division of the topic, 

 but I feel assured that long ere this 

 most of my kind friends of theOoLOGiST 

 have decided it to be largely otherwise. 



P. M. SiLLOW AY. 



Destruction of Birds- 



The life of the birds is constantly ex- 

 posed to many dangers. Very few of 

 them die a natural death, or even live 

 out half of their allotted days. These 

 perils are especially numerous during 

 ' the life of the birds as unhatched em- 

 bryos or helpless iledglings. The in- 

 fancy of the birds is cradled in danger; 

 not a day nor night elap.ses, from the 

 time the eggs are laid until the young 

 are tlown, but that the chances are in 

 favor of the nest Ijeing pillaged and its 

 <;ontents destroyed. The households 

 of the birds are exposed to many ene- 

 mies, cats, gquinels, skunks, crows, 

 jays and other predaceous bird» and 

 animals against which the helpless 



feathered creatures can offer no defense 

 except concealment. When at length 

 the nestling launches upon the ethereal 

 depths, sustained by their own pinions 

 and dependent upon their own exer- 

 tions for sustenance and safety, then it 

 may be said that they have paried fully 

 half of the dangers incident to the life 

 of a bird. 



We know very little of avian epidem- 

 ics; what proportion of the deaths of 

 birds may be ascribed to disease it 

 would be impossible to tell. There 

 must be plagues and diseases among 

 bird-kind, as well as among the other 

 forms of animal life, but the mortality 

 caused by disease is, I believ'e, compar- 

 atively slight. We must look to other 

 destructive agencies to see the means 

 whereby nature maintains its balance. 



If these destructive agencies were re- 

 moved we would witness a phenominal 

 increase in the number of birds, as we 

 have seen in the instance of that avian 

 pest, the English Sparrow. About a 

 quarter of a century ago the English 

 Sparrow was introduced into this 

 country, their numbers have multiplied 

 until now they overrun almost the 

 whole country east of the Mississippi 

 and are quite extensively distributed in 

 localities west of that limit. If the 

 Passenger Pigeons had been permitted 

 to increase as they did prior to the 

 advent of civilized man, the flocks of 

 the days of Audubon and Wilson would 

 be much smaller than the mighty aggre- 

 gations which in these later days 

 would infest the laud. Travelling in 

 such incomprehensible numbers their 

 track would be a scene of desolation: 

 But they waned before the advance of 

 civilization; the forests in which they 

 were accustc^med to lodge and breed 

 have been laid low, busy marts and 

 populous cities line the thoroughfares 

 they follovved in their bi-annual migra- 

 tions; on the vast prairies, over which 

 they held their stately pilgrimages, now 

 bows the farmer's harvest and grazes 



