1 86 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



the square mile would probably l)e the rare exception ratlier than 



a frequent occurrence. 



Be it noted, furtiiermore, tiiat the constant demand for novelty, 

 to which fashions are due, prohibits a continuance of even this low 

 mortality rate for many years in succession. 



Figures aside, however, it is a self-evident fact that all species 

 of animals and plants require checks to their maximum rate of in- 

 crease. (The human population of the United States, at the ordi- 

 nary rate of increase, would number four to every scpiare yard of 

 the earth's surface in less than seven hundred years). '■' 



Now, of the many natural checks u[)on the increase of birds, 

 some are removed by civilization, others are increased. 



Then again, there is even a higher factor that governs the in- 

 crease or decrease of different species — which is unknown to us 

 except by its effects, namely, the inherent capacity of the species 

 itself tcf increase. 



As an instance of the disappearance of a species without known 

 cause, we have the case of own parroquet, a bird abundant in large 

 flocks, throughout the Ohio Valley in the first quarter of the century, 

 noted by Audubon in 1831, as rapidly diminishing in numbers; by 

 Kirtland and others, in 1838, as only met with irregularly, and as 

 straggling flocks. While we have no recorded date of their ap- 

 pearance in this State, between 1840 and 1862, when a single flock 

 of stragglers were noted in Columbus. 



Throughout their range we have the same accounts of constantly 

 diminishing numbers, as we had before the days of bird-wearers, 

 taxidermists, pot hunters, or ornithological collectors in the 

 West. In accordance with this capacity some species are to-day 

 increasing, while others are dying out, much as they did in former 

 geologic times before the human biped made his apjjearance ; and 

 man to day is only one check upon species, in Nature's vast game 

 of chess ; and not by any means so important a one as he is apt to 



imagine. 



To sum up, then, the practical influence of bird-wearing upon 

 our fauna, we may note : 



First— That the North American birds used in greatest numbers 

 are gulls, terns, herons, and others, not song-birds, nor species 

 beneficial to the agriculturist. 



Second — That our most desirable and familiar song-birds, such 

 as thrushes, wrens, greenlets and finches, are in limited demand, 

 on account of their generally i)lain colors. 



* Darwin, "Descent of Man,'' p. 126. 



