15 



BIRD-EXTERMINATORS IN NEBRASKA AND GEORGIA. 



According to the New York Sun: "J. H. Den and three com- 

 panions are reported to have Icilled 700 wild geese and duclis 

 in the northern part of Nebraslta on a recent hunting trip. 

 Seven hundred such birds would weigh not much, if any less, 

 than a ton. 



H. J. Lamar, Jr., and a party of hunters went to Leesburg, 

 Ga., dove hunting. The amount of game that they killed 

 makes one think of the wild pigeons away back in the fifties. 

 The party killed 8,000 of the birds. The American Field says 

 of this killing that 'such fiendish work by men who claim to 

 be sportsmen makes our blood boil with indignation. • • • 

 Their Inhuman greed was unsportsmanlike." 



If this kind of work is allowed to go on for a few 

 years we will have no game of any kind to shoot. 



PASSING OF FAMILIAR BIRDS. 



The great value of insectivorous birds cannot be 

 overestimated. The fact is evident to all who have 

 given any attention to the subject that if the wasteful, 

 cruel and useless slaughter of birds is not soon checked 

 numerous species will be obliterated from regions 

 where in former years they were abundant. About 

 twenty years ago wild pigeons bred in immense num- 

 bers in certain sections of Pennsylvania; but they are 

 now gone. Why have they left? The reason is, pri- 

 marily, because they were so relentlessly pursued by 

 netters and market hunters, and, secondly, on account 

 of the destruction of the primitive forests where they 

 resorted to breed. Fifteen years ago the beneficial and 

 euewily dressed Red-headed Woodpecker was one of the 

 most common birds to be met with on a day's outing 

 in the rural districts. Now, it is rather unusual to see 

 one of these birds in sections where, in my boyhood 

 days, they were abundant. 



What has been largely instrumental in bringing 

 about this change? Why, the love of pecuniary gain 



