306 THE VERTEBRATE ANIMALS 



Not all birds are seed or insect feeders. Some, as the cormorants, 

 ospreys, gulls, and terns, are active fishers. Near large cities 

 gulls especially act as scavengers, destroying much floating gar- 

 bage that otherwise might be washed ashore to become a menace to 

 health. Sea birds also live upon shellfish and crustaceans (as 

 small crabs, shrimps, etc.) ; some even eat lower organisms. 

 The kea parrot, once a fruit eater, now takes its meal from the 

 muscles forming the backs of living sheep. Birds of prey (owls) 

 eat living mammals, including many rodents, for example, field 

 mice, rats, and other pests. 



Extermination of our Native Birds. Within our own times we 

 have witnessed the almost total extermination of some species of 

 our native birds. The American passenger pigeon, once very 

 abundant in the Middle West, is now practically extinct. Audu- 

 bon, the greatest of all American bird lovers, gives a graphic 

 account of the migration of a flock of these birds. So numerous 

 were they that when the flock rose in the air the sun was dark- 

 ened, and at night the weight of the roosting birds broke down large 

 branches of the trees in which they rested. To-day hardly a 

 single specimen of this pigeon can be found, because they were 

 slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands during the breeding 

 season. At the present time nearly $3000 is offered to the person 

 finding a pair of nesting passenger pigeons. The wholesale killing 

 of the snowy egret to furnish ornaments for ladies' headwear 

 is another example of the improvidence of our fellow-countrymen. 

 Charles Dudley Warner said, " Feathers do not improve the ap- 

 pearance of an ugly woman, and a pretty woman needs no such 

 aid." Wholesale killing for plumage, eggs, and food, and, alas, 

 often for mere sport, has caused the decrease of our birds to 46 

 per cent in thirty states and territories within the past fifteen years. 

 Every crusade against indiscriminate killing of our native birds 



done every year by the destruction of insect pests fed to nestling birds. And it 

 should be remembered that the nesting season is also that when the destruction of 

 injurious insects is most needed ; that is, at the period of greatest agricultural 

 activity and before the parasitic insects can be depended on to reduce the pests. 

 The encouragement of birds to nest on the farm and the discouragement of nest 

 robbing are therefore more than mere matters of sentiment ; they return an actual 

 cash equivalent, and have a definite bearing on the success or failure of the crops. 

 Year Book of the Department of Agriculture. 



