AGRICULTURAL USES OF BIRDS. 



MEADOW-LARK (SturneKa magna). 



Let us notice from history a few instances of the gradual decrease of some of our birds, 

 that any who are doubting may be convinced. Hear what Audubon says: When I first 

 removed to Kentucky, the pinnated grouse were so plenty that they were held in no higher 

 estimation as food than the most common J!^s=i ^ 



flesh; and no hunter of Kentucky deigned 

 to shoot them. In those days, during the 

 winter, the grouse would enter the farm 

 yard, and feed with the poultry, alight on 

 the houses, or walk in the very streets of 

 the villages. I recollect having caught 

 some in a stable at Henderson where they 

 had followed some wild turkeys. In the 

 course of the same winter, a friend of mine, 

 who was fond of practicing rifle-shooting, 

 killed upward of forty in one morning, 

 but . picked up none of them, so satisfied 

 with grouse was he as well as every mem 

 ber of his family. My own servants pre 

 ferred the fattest flitch of bacon to their 

 flesh, and not unfrequently laid them aside 

 as unfit for food. Twenty-five years after, 

 the same author says: Such an account 

 may appear strange; but in that same country where twenty-five years ago they could not 

 have been sold for more than one cent a piece, scarcely one is now to be found. The grouse 

 have abandoned the State of Kentucky, and removed (like the Indian) every season farther 

 westward to escape from the murderous white man. &quot; 



The bird above mentioned was once probably very abundant in all the southern New 

 England States, but is now only found in small numbers on Martha s Vineyard and one or 

 two other islands off the southern coast of Massachusetts, being entirely extinct on the main 

 land of New England. 



Mr. 3. A. Allen says: &quot;The mammalian and bird faunas of all the older settled parts of 

 the United States are vastly different from what they were two hundred years ago. These 

 changes consist mainly in the great decrease in number of all the larger species, not a few of 



which are already extirpated where 



they were formerly common. A 



few of the smaller species of both 



classes have doubtless increased in 



numbers. Many of our water-fowl 



that are now only transient visitors, 



as the Canada goose, the several 



species of Merganser, teals, black 



duck, and mallard, undoubtedly 



once bred in this State (Massachu 

 setts), as did also the wild turkey and 



prairie hen.&quot; An old farmer of Essex 



County recently told us that fifteen 



years ago the passenger-pigeon was 



accustomed to breed in considerable 



numbers in a forest not far from 



his house. Now a few pairs may 



be seen in the spring and fall migra 

 tions; but none in the summer. In 

 (Curviros- fa e sarne county, ten years ago, the 



ruffed grouse was quite abundant; 

 but now it is rare that any are seen except in the deepest woods, and then only an occasional 

 pair, most of them having been snared, and sent to the Boston market, laws to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. Formerly some six or seven species of sea-ducks bred among the islands 

 of Massachusetts; now none are to be found except the dusky.duck, and that in no great 

 abundance. 



Increase Of Insects. As a result of the decrease in the number of birds, we find 

 that insects have been steadily increasing; and the aggregate loss through their agency is now 

 VOL. II. 52 



^AMERICAN SHRIKE (C. bore- 

 alts). 



