CHAPTER XXI. 



THE CONSERVATION OF BIRDS. 



I. NON-GAMEBIRDS THEIR DESTRUCTION, PROTECTION, AND 



ENCOURAGEMENT. 



ACCORDING to the latest classification, there are eleven hun- 

 dred arid twenty-four species of birds inhabiting America 

 north of Mexico. They are included in seventeen orders. 

 For our present purpose we will divide them into two classes, 

 namely, gamebirds and non-gamebirds. The gamebirds, 

 comprising only five orders, amounting to two hundred and 

 twenty-two species, will be considered in the next chapter. 

 The nine hundred and two species and subspecies in the 

 twelve orders of non-gamebirds are of all sizes and of a wide 

 variety of habits. While of little or no use as food, and 

 generally recognized as important aids in keeping insects 

 within supportable limits, or, in case of birds that prefer 

 other food than insects, either beneficial or at least harmless, 

 they have too often been slaughtered and otherwise per- 

 secuted. 



It seems a well-established fact that birds, as a class, are 

 now less numerous in the United States than they were a 

 century or more ago. While some species have doubtless 

 become more abundant under the changed conditions of 

 modern civilization, others are very much rarer, and a few 

 appear to be approaching extinction. It was, of course, 

 inevitable that the changes produced by man's interference 

 with natural conditions should have a tremendous influence 

 upon the native fauna. Some birds have found the new dis- 

 pensation better suited to their wants than the old ; others 

 have changed their habits and made the best of it; while 

 others have been so relentlessly persecuted that their only 



255 



