SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 85 
USE OF SONG BirDs AS Foop.—A new danger now threatens 
our song birds, and others of their order. 
In this grinding, pulverizing, end-of-the-century period, there 
is a large percentage of the human race which sticks at nothing 
that the law allows. For example, those who like to wear fur 
will wear fur as long as there lives a single wild and killable 
creature that is clothed with hair. In ten short years we have 
seen the taste for fur descend swiftly from the fur seal, otter and 
mink to the once-despised muskrat, rabbit and skunk. 
In like manner, as our grouse and wild ducks grow scarce and 
disappear, the taste of the epicure and the pot-hunter descends 
by swift stages from the wild turkey, ruffed grouse, pinnated 
grouse and canvas-back, to the rail, sandpiper, mourning dove, 
bobolink and meadow lark. Consider the ‘‘reed-bird on toast’’ 
—or, worse still, ‘“on a skewer.’’ It is a trifle too large for one 
mouthful, but by no means large enough for two. ‘To see a 
healthy, able-bodied American at work upon this two-ounce bird 
with aten-inch knife, with the idea of satisfying the pangs of 
Hunger, is the acme of absurdity. But the reed-bird epicure 
must look to his laurels. There are rivals in his field. Let me 
quote some facts that have lately been communicated on the de- 
struction of song birds : 
From Dr. R. L. WALKER, Carnegie Pa.:—‘‘ The birds are decreasing. 
In traveling through the country I do not see more than about one-third as 
many as I did fifteen yearsago. . . . I think the English sparrow and the 
foreigners are the main cause of decrease of our native birds. When I say 
foreigners, I mean French, Italian and Hungarian laborers who shoot every-~ 
thing with feathers or fur whenever they can see them. . . . One French- 
man came in with nearly half a bushel of birds in one day.’’ [He was 
brought to book by Dr. Walker, thoroughly frightened by threats of arrest, 
fine and imprisonment, begged off under promise of reformation, and 
actually became a bird protectionist. ] 
From WILLIAM PALMER, Washington, D. C.:—‘‘ Last year [1897] 2,600 
robins were received in one month by a single dealer in the Washington 
market. They came from one locality in North Carolina, and were killed 
while roosting, with a lot of other species. The other species were also sent 
to market, but their fate was incidental to that of the robins. The birds 
were plucked and bunched when received, and offered for sale.”’ 
From WILLIAM BREWSTER, Cambridge, Mass. :—‘‘ Italians are beginning 
to kill the small song birds.”’ 
From EVERETY® H. BARNEY, Springfield, Mass.:—‘‘The Italians are 
destroying the small singing birds.” 
