Papers on the Dcstnuiion of Native Birds. 183 



regardless of milliners and fasliion whenever civili/alion drains and 

 cultivates their nesting; and feeding places. I'l we look at this part 

 of the subject in an ccoitoniic light, we shall see that these birds, 

 chiefly herons, are the natural enemies of fish, so that their de- 

 struction, in the long run, direcdy favors the increase of food for 

 man. Furthermore, their habitat is in districts entirely uninhab- 

 itable to the human si)ecies, and tliey would forever remain un- 

 known to man but fur the ornithologist, the sportsman and the 

 milliner. 



Now, leaving the gulls, terns, shore-ljirds, grebes and herons 

 for the present, let us examine some of the figures of our pessimistic 

 friends which do apply to .sv^//i,'--birds and their use for millinery pur- 

 poses. Here we are struck at once with the absence of definite 

 figures, and in their ])lace find such generalizations as "many 

 song-birds" and " war of extermination" on catbirds, robins and 

 thrushes. 



One New York taxidermist is (]uoted as having thirty thousand 

 skins of "crows, crow blackbirds, red winged blackbirds ;ind snow- 

 buntings." The first three species of disi)Uted or doubtful benefit 

 to man on account of their omnivorous diet, and with no song 

 worth mentioning, excepting the ( lear whistle of the redwinged 

 blackbird ; while the fourth species is a fiir Northern sparrow, a 

 winter visitor only in the United States, irregularly distributed, 

 subsisting chiefly on seeds, and with no more song while with us 

 than the European sparrows in our streets. 



Again, the extent of territory from which this thirty thousand 

 skins were derived is not mentioned — a very important item, as J 

 shall hope to show later. 



The most definite observations as to the use of song-birds are 

 those by Mr. F. M. Chapman, as the result oi two afternoon walks 

 in the '''shopping" districts of New York. He gives a list of 

 forty species observed of which fifteen only can, by the most liberal 

 classification, be denominated hong-birds, including two si)arrows, 

 which are only winter visitors in the United States. The aggregate 

 number of individuals belonging to this lot is stated at 174, which 

 may be classified as follows: Song-birds and useful species, 30; 

 useful but not song-birds, 38 ; birds of doubtful and negative value, 

 106. Amongst those classed as of negative value are some really 

 objectionable as destroyers of useful species, namely, the shrikes 

 and jays. The others in the negative list are chiefly terns, gulls, 

 grebes and shore birds. 



