39 



abandoning their industry. M. Godart in proposing a remedy 

 even went so far as to advocate the construction of large aviaries 

 in which birds could be reared under protection and released 

 to repopulate the deserted woods and fields. 1 



In 1914 a bitter cry went up again from French farmers re- 

 garding crops destroyed by insects and lessened yields. The 

 Societe d'Horticulture Pratique du Rhone, by way of warning 

 to the public, gave statistics of the enormous number of birds 

 that had been destroyed by the people, and recommended strict 

 law enforcement and education to stop bird destruction. 2 



The unusually severe weather of February, 1917, was very 

 destructive to birds in England. They were reported to have 

 died by thousands. Many birds also had been killed and the 

 eggs of others taken and used for food. The next year birds 

 were seen to be comparatively scarce. Then, apparently in 

 consequence of the scarcity of birds, insects notably increased. 

 According to the "London Times" of October 9, 1917, there 

 was a plague of caterpillars in many districts that had almost 

 stripped the trees of their leaves at the beginning of that 

 summer. 3 



In 1895 I received a letter from Monsieur J. O. Clercy, then 

 secretary of the Society of Natural Sciences, Ekaterinburg, 

 Russian Siberia, in which he said that the ravages of cutworms 

 and of ten species of locusts had contributed (together with the 

 dryness of the season) to produce a famine in that region. He 

 asserted that one of the evident causes which permitted such a 

 numerous propagation of insect pests was the almost complete 

 annihilation of birds, most of which had been killed and sent 

 abroad by wagonloads for ladies' hats. 4 The cause of the in- 

 fliction was so evident that a law for the protection of birds 

 was enacted, thus "locking the stable door after the horse had 

 been stolen." 



Professor Samuel Aughey of Nebraska gathered statistics in 

 regard to the killing of bobwhites and prairie chickens for the 

 market between 1864 and 1877, and also made a study of the 



1 Oldys, Henry: Current Items of Interest, Audubon Society of the District of Columbia, 

 No. 33, June 23, 1917. 



Sainsbury, Edwin F.: Our Dumb Animals, June, 1914, p. 10. 



Oldys, Henry: Current Items of Interest, Audubon Society of the District of Columbia, 

 No. 37, June 29, 1918. 



Forbuah, E. H., and Fernald, C. H.: The Gypsy Moth, Massachusetts State Board of Agri- 

 culture, 1896, pp. 205, 206. 



