INTRODUCTION 49 



Giraud and his friends on Long Island. This may be called 

 the close of the period of greatest abundance, and lasted to 

 about 1885. During this period the remnants of the original 

 forest disappeared, market hunting on a large scale greatly 

 decreased the number of what game birds remained, the 

 demands of the millinery trade practically exterminated the 

 Tern and Shore-bird colonies, and the popularity of many 

 smaller birds as cage pets affected certain species like the 

 Bobolink and Mockingbird. 



The next twenty-five years saw changes of a different 

 sort due to different causes. The rapid growth of the city, 

 and the development of suburbs, led to the draining of 

 marshes and the clearing of land still suitable for many kinds 

 of birds. The rapid increase of a low-class foreign population, 

 for whom everything with feathers was game, greatly affected 

 many common species which had become adapted to the 

 vicinity of man. The successful introduction of the English 

 Sparrow began during this period seriously to harm those 

 species which were unable to compete with it. These factors 

 still persist at the present time and will undoubtedly continue. 

 The introduction of the Starling in addition promises to work 

 even greater havoc with native species than the English 

 Sparrow. The following list contains those which are defi- 

 nitely known to have decreased or disappeared in historical 

 times in the ornithological sense. Those marked with an 

 asterisk (*) have decreased markedly in the last twenty years. 



Laughing Gull Baldpate 



Gull-billed Tern Green-winged Teal 



Caspian Tern Blue-winged Teal 



Forster's Tern *Wood Duck 



Common Tern *Bufflehead 

 Roseate Tern Labrador Duck 



Least Tern Ruddy Duck 



Black Skimmer Whistling Swan 



Hooded Merganser *Least Bittern 

 Mallard Snowy Egret 



