Papers on the Destruction of Native Binis. 163 



PAPERS ON THE DESTRUCTION OF NATIVE BIRDS.* 



FIRST PAPER, 



By Mr. Chas. Dury. 

 (Read at Special Meeting, May 25, 1886.) ■ 



In the year i86t I first became interested in birds, and par- 

 ticularly those of the vicinity of Cincinnati. During the twenty- 

 five years jmssed since then a great change has taken place in the 

 Avian fauna of this locality. Then the beautiful wild pigeons, in 

 their autumn migration, came over this country in countless 

 myriads, but for tlie last three or four years none have been seen, 

 and even the far-reaching market shooter has failed to furnish any 

 for sale. They have been exterminated in this locality. From 

 i860 to 1870 geese^ ducks, snipe and other water birds passed over 

 in swarms to and from their breeding grounds in the North. They, 

 also, are fast sharing the fate of the pigeons, as hardly two in a 

 hundred of former numbers remain. As late as 1875 several 

 covies of (juails lived within the limits of Avondale, of whose 

 numbers not a survivor now remains. 



Change of habitat and cheap and improved sliotguns have 

 wrought fearful destruction among our beautiful game birds. 



The inventors who are continually improving the killing qual- 

 ities of breech-loading and repeating shotguns would do well to 

 turn their attention to inventing some method by which the game 

 the guns are to be used on can be saved from complete 

 destruction. Florida, perhaps, better than any other State in 

 the Union, shows the work of the destroyer, and in a shorter per- 

 iod of time. When I first visited that State in 1875 with some 

 gentlemen of the Cuvier Club for the purpose of collecting some 

 specimens of birds and fishes for the club's museum, we were as- 

 tonished at the great number of beautiful aquatic birds we saw at 

 all suitable places. 



The egrets, herons and pelicans congregated by thousands in 

 the rookeries. The snowy plumage of the egrets as they perched 

 in the dark foliage of the mangroves gave a color to the landscape. 

 The hand of the destroyer had but begun the work of destruction. 



*The eight papers following were read as noted in the proceedings. Most of them 

 were published in the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette soon after their presentation to 

 the Society. They are reprinted entire at the request of a number of members of the 

 Society. 



