Papers on the Destruction of Native Birds. 193 



at two hundred birds to the square mile. Or, to bring it more 

 within our comprehension, the two milHon square miles of area in 

 the United States, with its two hundred birds tp the square mile, 

 and we have four hundred millions as the total number of birds 

 in the United States. He does not say if this guess is made 

 up from the migratory season, or the average residents during the 

 year. I presume, however, t is the latter, and according to this 

 method of computation he figures out that birds double their num- 

 bers by natural increase each year —a stupendous counting of 

 chickens before they are hatched. As there are absolutely no 

 statistics on this subject, this is in the nature of new information 

 to ornithologists. There is a large extent of country in the United 

 States almost destitute of birds. 



During the winter the great plains extending from Texas up 

 to the British Possessions are destitute of bird life, and even in 

 summer birds are very few and far between. I have traveled all 

 day over the desert country of New Mexico without seeing a bird, 

 and it is only when one comes near water that birds begin to 

 appear. In traveling through the Rocky Mountains, and also 

 through the mountains of West Virginia in the summer, I was 

 astonished at the small number of resident birds. Dr. Freeman 

 and myself observed the same condition in the dense pine forests 

 of Michigan, and that, too, in summer, when birds should have 

 been most numerous. Back from the Nipegon River the fishing 

 parties of the Cuvier Club report the country an avian desert, as I 

 also found other parts of Canada back from the St. Lawrence. The 

 vicinity of this city is one of the most favored localities in the land 

 for birds, and by comparing local lists it will be seen that there are 

 but few places comparable with it. I mention the above facts 

 to show how impossible it is to even guess approximately at the 

 number of birds in the area given. Dr. Langdon deprecates the 

 want of facts and reliable statistics in the paper read by your com- 

 mittee and then proceeds to reason from a theory based on such 

 guess work as this. Nor does he make due allowance for the 

 tremendous destruction from natural causes which threaten the lives 

 of birds at every stage of their existence. Elliott says: "Birds 

 that return in spring are not more numerous than those which came 

 the preceding spring ; whereas, those that went back in autumn 

 were two or three times as numerous." Dr. Langdon states that 

 man is but one of nature's checks to the undue increase of birds. 



