OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
SECTION I 
ARE THE BIRDS DECREASING 
Axpout a year ago Mr. William T. Hornaday com- 
piled what might be termed the first bird census of 
the United States.! He sent the following set of 
questions to a number of persons in every state and 
territory, excepting Alaska : — 
1. Are birds decreasing in your locality ? 
2. About how many are there now in comparison 
with the number fifteen years ago? One-half as 
many ? one-third? one-fourth ? 
3. What agency, or class of men, has been most 
destructive to the birds of your locality ? 
4. What important species of birds or quadrupeds 
are becoming extinct in your state ? 
The answers received to those questions and the 
conclusions drawn from them must, on the whole, be 
accepted as trustworthy. The following states reported 
1«¢The Destruction of our Birds and Mammals,’’ by W. T. Horna- 
day. In the ‘*Second Report of the New York Zodlogical Society,” 
New York, 1898. Office of the Society, 69 Wall Street. The most 
valuable document ever published on the subject. 
B 1 
