MAMMALOGY A^^) ORNITHOLOGY. 277 



On another of theao occasions, "about the year 1820, in North BridgCM-ati^r. 

 Ma.?sacliusetts, the birds -were killed in such quantities that cartloads of them 

 were sold to the farmers for fertilizings the soil. There was consequently a 

 great scarcity of birds in all that vicinity. Soon the herbage began to show 

 signs of injury; tufts of withered. grass appeared, and spread out widely into 

 circles of a seared and burnt comjilexion. Though the cause and effect were 

 so near each other, they were not logically put together by the inhabitants at 

 that time. Modern entomology, however, would have explained to them the 

 cause of this phenomenon in the increase of the larvoe of injurious insects, usu- 

 ally kept in check by the birds which had been destroyed at that shooting 

 match." These are not isolated cases, nor even rare instances. Let the curious 

 student consult local newspapers from the different sections of the country in 

 the spring months, and he will find many instances of these shooting matches, 

 with long accounts of the different birds and animals destroyed. 



In Europe a similar system of extermination is prevalent, and seems to be 

 steadily on the increase. Frederick de Tschudi, the president of the Agricul- 

 tural Society of Canton St. Gall, Switzerland,* writes of this practice as 

 follows : 



"But the cause which exercises a still more fatal influence on the diminution of our most 

 useful birds of passage is the extraordinary hunt they are subjected to on the part of the Italians. 

 It is a well known. fact that, at the pcriocJof their spring migrations, and still more in autumn, 

 Italians are seized with a mania for killing small birds. Men of all ages and conditions — 

 nobles, merchants, priests, artisans, and peasants — all abandon their daily task.s to attack, 

 like banditti, the troops of passing visitors. By the river-side, in tlie fields, all around is 

 beard the report of fiie-ai'ms ; nets are laid, traps set, twigs covered with bird-lime himg on 

 every busli. On every hill adapted to the purpose is placed a sort of trap, (roccolo,) full of 

 owls and sparrow-hawks, to attack and slaughter the little stranger." "To form some idea 

 of the slaughter which for weeks together is the chief delight of the population of Italy, it is 

 sufHcient to mention that in one district on the shores of the Lago Maggiore the number of 

 small birds annually destroyed amounts to between 00,000 and 70,000, and that in Lombardy, 



ono single roccolo, 15,000 bn-ds are often captured daily. In the neighborhood of B'-r- 

 gamo, Verona, and Bresca, several millions of birds are slaughtered every autumn. We 

 cannot prevent the Italians from indulging in their absiud and barbarous amusements, but 

 we can lessen the evil in some degree, and it would be but consistent with the proverbial good 

 sense of us Germans if we were to protect all the bird tribe with a solicitude proportionate 

 to the mad attacks upon them soiuhwards, and thus in some degree reinstate the order of 

 nature, and aid in re-establishing the uecessaiy balance between the insect world and its 

 enemies." 



Unfortunately the destruction of valuable birds by our fiirmers is not confined 

 to their shooting matches, but on majiy farms the boys are provided with guns 

 and ammunition, and instructed to destroy those birds which are traditionally in- 

 jurious, such as the robin, common crow, blackbirds, thrushes, and numerous 

 others, all of which are beneficial. 



The investigations of ornithologists and other students of nature have within 

 a few years disclosed interesting and valuable facts regarding this branch of 

 rural economy, showing the importance of the subject to be far from trivial. It 

 will not be necessary in this paper to enter into an extended consideratinn of 

 these investigations, but the most important facts obtained by them will be 

 presented, together with such suggestions as are appropriate. 



In the greai class — birds we find groups possessing peculiarities of form, habits, 

 and'food suificiently marked to place them in permanent natural orders. Of 

 the^e, our land birds, important to agi-iculture, are included in the following : 

 Raptares, [hhds of prey ;) Scansores, (climbers;) Insessorcs, {])GYchers ;) Ra- 

 sorcs, (scratchers;) and Grallatorcs, (waders.) The characteristics of these 

 orders are well marked and easily distinguished. 



* Translated by Henry L. B. Ibbetson, in the Ohio Agricultural Report for 1862. 



