2 1 8 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



don has attacked so good a cause as that of the Audubon Society. 

 "Dr. T>angdon's statement that native American birds are 

 ahnost entirely absent in millinery establishments is not borne out 

 by the observations of myself and others in the Eastern States where 

 nearly half the birds worn on hats are our own song and insectivor- 

 ous species. His assertion that ten million bird wearing women 

 will not cause the annual slaughter of more than five million birds 

 is absurd, for most women who wear ieathers at all (and 1 rejoice 

 to observe that their r umber is growing smaller every day) wear 

 those from several different birds at the same time, and I have 

 repeatedly seen the heads or wings of five or six birds on a single 

 hat, and in one instance I counted eleven! 



;K 5{; ?■; ^ ^; ;•; -Ar. ^j; 



"Judging from the very brief abstract seen of Dr. Langdon's 

 address, it seems to me that in his argument he has lost sight of 

 the most important factors affecting the balance of bird life — a fac- 

 tor which undermines his statistics and vitiates his conclusions, — 

 namely, the causes other than the loillful acts of man which check 

 the increase of birds. These causes are so numerous and so dis- 

 astrous to bird life that their combined action renders the struggle 

 for existence peculiarly severe, and owing to the inevitable results 

 of what we are pleased to call the ' advance of civilization,' this 

 struggle will become harder each year. Hence it is certain that, 

 if not soon checked, the willful destruction of birds by man for 

 commercial purposes, superadded to the above unavoidable causes 

 of decrease, will result in the total exterminati'' n of many species 

 and in the reduction to the extreme rarity of many others. In a 

 number of cases this result has been already partially accomplished. 



"In the animal kingdom, and in fact throughout organic nature, 

 it is the rule that every species has its natural enemies which serve 

 to check its excessive multiplication. By this means a sort of bal- 

 ance is maintained in the scale of nature. But when man steps in 

 to add his potent influence in the destruction of a species the 

 equilibrium is l)roken and the fate of the species seems to be 

 merely a matter of time. 



"The chief causes, other than the willful acts of man, which tend 

 to check the increase of birds, are : 



1. Animal enemies imdiWWixdX's., birds, reptiles, batrachians and 

 fishes which prey upon the eggs, young, or adults); 



2. Meteorological agents (severe storms, particularly during 

 migration and in the breeding season); and 



