Papers on the Destruction of Native Bii ds. 213 



"It is evident, that in proportion to the number of hats seen, 

 the list of birds given is very small; but in most cases mutilation 

 rendered identification impossible. 



"Thus while one afternoon 700 hats were counted, and on 

 them but 20 birds recognized, 542 were decorated (?) with feathers 

 of some kind. Of the 158 remaining, 72 were worn by young or 

 middle-aged ladies, and 86 by ladies in mourning or elderly 

 ladies; or, percentage of hats with feathers, 77 3-7; without feath- 

 ers, 10 2-7 ; without feathers, worn by ladies in mourning or elderly 

 ladies, 12 2-7." 



Now, of these birds seen by Mr. F. M. Chapman, Dr. Lang- 

 don is forced to make the following admission, I quote : 



"The aggregate number of individuals belonging to this lot 

 is stated at 174, which may be classified as follows : Songbirds 

 and useful species, 30; useful but not song birds, 38 ; birds of 

 doubtful and negative value, 106.'' So that the Doctor admits that 

 68 of these 174 birds were undeniable useful species, that is to say, 

 33 per cent of these birds were well known to be useful to the 

 farmer, the agriculturist, the horticulturist, or to the forester, and 

 15 per cent to be song birds. Furthermore the Doctor does not 

 deny that the species observed by Mr. Chapman were our own 

 North American birds, with most of which we all are familiar. 



An examination such as that of Chapman is like that of a mer- 

 chant sami)ling. He selects at hap-hazard here and there and he 

 thus tests the whole lot. The examination is a very satisfactory 

 one and a very alarming one. It shows that the use of birds is not 

 confined to coast birds, but that already ^ of the birds worn by 

 our women are birds of our farms and are insectivorous birds, and 

 many of them are song birds. 



In "Science" we find, "One gunner informed me that during 

 the winter of 1883 he shot for a middle-man over a thousand cedar 

 birds {Aiiipclis ccdroruni.) If they had been permitted to live un- 

 til next season of reproduction, it is fair to assume that each pair 

 would have reared an average of five young, or an aggregate of 

 twenty-five hundred birds. It is a well known fact that cedar 

 birds are very voracious eaters, and feed almost exclusively, during 

 some months of the year, on the span-worm, canker-worm and small 

 caterpillars. The damage done the agricultural interests of the 

 country by the destruction of these birds is enormous." 



Let us make a new computation of the rate of mortality among 

 birds from unnecessary causes. We take as our basis of the bird 



