CHAPTER IX 



SONG BIRDS AS FOOD 



THE disgraceful killing of song birds for food has 

 already caused fearful destruction among the birds in 

 some sections of our country. From Pennsylvania, 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Michigan, 

 North Carolina, and New Orleans come reports saying 

 that song birds, and, in fact, practically every kind of 

 bird is shot, sold, and devoured as game. The crim- 

 inals are mostly French, Italian, and Hungarian labor- 

 ers in the northern states, and negroes, Italians, and 

 French Creoles in the southern states. Robins, thrushes, 

 flickers, native sparrows, and even swallows are sold in 

 the markets of New Orleans, In 1897, two thousand 

 six hundred robins were received by one dealer in 

 Washington, D.C., in a single month. The birds were 

 shipped from North Carolina and had been killed while 

 roosting. 



The only kind of teaching this class of criminals is 

 capable of appreciating are the programmes dictated by 

 the judges and carried out by state prison wardens and 

 county sheriffs. The League of American Sportsmen 

 and the Audubon Societies are now extending their 

 work into the southern states, and they will not hesitate 

 to have the laws applied ; and every good citizen should 

 help them in this duty. 



90 



