MAN AS AN ENEMY OF BIRDS 165 



purpose of the day's hunt is to see which side can kill 

 the most birds. The hunters scatter over the coun- 

 try shooting all living things, and, bringing in their 

 game, meet again, and count up the points to see 

 which side has the higher score. Each bird killed 

 counts for a certain number of points. 



Five hundred and sixty -five birds and other ani- 

 mals were killed in an annual " side" hunt at Enos- 

 burg Falls, Vermont, October 9, 1896. In a town in 

 Vermont in which the author lived, a hunting con- 

 test was conducted on Thanksgiving Day; and after 

 the hunt was over, the party went to a hotel and 

 the side which had scored the highest count was 

 treated to a Thanksgiving dinner by the losing side. 



Most of the destruction to which reference has 

 so far been made refers to the game-birds, but the 

 small song-birds are also threatened by gunners, in- 

 cluding boys, foreigners (mostly Italians), negroes, 

 and poor whites in the South. 



Shooting by boys. Rifles and other guns are often 

 used by boys to shoot small birds. Sometimes there 

 is a contest to see who can kill the greatest number. 

 Mr. Forbush records a case in which one boy with 

 his air rifle killed 470 song-birds, and some of his 

 companions had killed more than this. One boy 

 was found near Washington, D.C., with seventy-two 

 kinglets alone, besides many other birds which had 

 been killed in one day. During the season he had 

 killed over one hundred catbirds. Bovs sometimes 



