BIRDS AND FOOD 



birds were very good eating, and' they were slaughtered 

 by the hundred thousand. In 1869 one town alone 

 near their great breeding grounds sent off 300,000 

 slain birds a day for six weeks during the nesting 

 period, a total of 12,000,000 birds. The last 

 American wood-pigeon to reach the London Zoo was 

 in 1883, and the last wild specimen ever shot was 

 in September 1903. Since then not one of these 

 birds has ever been seen wild, though there is a 

 standing offer of £ 1,000 for one. 



Fifty years ago the lakes, rivers, and marshes of 

 North America swarmed with wild ducks. Sports- 

 men, professional hunters, and the agents of plume 

 merchants attacked and slew them in millions. The 

 plume hunters, for instance, shot them down with 

 miniature cannons which were discharged from boats 

 disguised with foliage. Shooting thus into a flock of 

 a thousand ducks, large numbers were maimed and 

 wounded. The majority of these escaped, to die in 

 agony. From year to year this butchery went on 

 until ducks became very scarce. The people living 

 along the west coast of Hudson Bay eked out a 

 hard living by catching fish during the summer. 

 Throughout the long winter their chief means of 

 sustenance v/ere the wild ducks which were cured 

 and packed away in the autumn. One result of the 

 wholesale destruction of the wild ducks was starvation 

 to hundreds of families of hard-working fishermen 

 who, during the most favourable fishing seasons, were 

 only able to gain a bare livelihood. 



The fashionable lady who adorned her hat with the 

 127 



