Papers on the Destruction of Native Birds. 187 



Third — That of the briliantly plumaged birds, a vast majority 

 come from South America, and other foreign countries. 



Fourth — That probably enough of shrikes, jays, crows and other 

 predatory species are destroyed to more than compensate for the 

 few song birds actually killed by man for all purposes. 



Fifth — If all were song-birds and equally beneficial the reduction 

 in numbers from this cause would be inappreciable in its effects on 

 the fauna of the country at large. 



Coming down to the consideration of the birds of our own locali- 

 ty and surrounding territory, Mr. Dury has given us a very inter- 

 esting reference to the abundance of the wild pigeon in this region 

 twenty-five years ago, and has noted their scarcity at the present 

 day. The last great flignt of these birds that I remember here was 

 in the fall of 1865, when the air was darkened with them for the 

 greater part of two days. 



Now, their disappearance is certainly not due to the demands 

 of the milliners; and while the pot-hunter and the " bad small boy 

 with a gun" have probably destroyed their share, much more 

 influential factors in causing their disappearance in my opinion 

 have been the demands of agriculture and commerce, causing the 

 destruction of the mastbearing forests where they fed and nested. 

 The same factors account mainly for the disappearance of our 

 larger game and water birds — i.e.^ clearing forests, draining swamps 

 and so on. 



And we might as well attempt to stay the progress of Old 

 Father Time himself as to check civilization in order to save these 

 birds. " But, it may be asked, must our civilization eventually 

 cause a birdless country?" Not by any means; on the contrary, 

 we shall find if we study the comparative abundance of birds in 

 general, in most civilized sections of our country, that birds are 

 probably more numerous, both in species and in individuals, than 

 they were in the earlier days of its settlement. On this point I 

 will take the liberty of quoting from an article by myself in the 

 Journal of this society for 1879 : 



" During the past forty years several important changes have 

 taken place in our local bird fauna. As in all thickly populated 

 districts the wild turkey and prairie chicken have been extermi- 

 nated ; the parroquet, which formerly occurred in abundance 

 throughout the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys has at present a much 

 less extensive range, being mainly confined to the Gulf States; the 

 beautiful swallow-tailed kite [Elanoidcs forficatus) has apparently 



