Part II.] NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS. 219 



birds and game were remarkably numerous, far more so than 

 now, and that not only were eagles, hawks, owls, skunks, 

 weasels, raccoons and other foes of birds far more abundant 

 then than now, but there were also pumas, wolves, lynxes, 

 bears and ravens, which are now rarelj^ or never found in 

 southern New England. It must be accepted as a fact that the 

 natural enemies of birds did not then tend to diminish their 

 numbers. Going back only to the days of the civil war we 

 find that in the southern States, when white men were practi- 

 cally all in the army, when negroes had no guns and when very 

 little hunting was done, game increased to enormous numbers 

 it spite of its natural enemies. 



In 1877-78, when I was on the Indian River, Florida, game 

 was more abundant than I have ever seen it anywhere since. 

 Hosts of wild fowl blackened the waters. Bobwhites and wild 

 turkeys were plentiful, and myriads of herons, egrets, shore 

 birds and land birds were seen, some of which are now nearly 

 extinct. But eagles were more than common, so common that 

 a collector secured nearly 100 sets of their eggs. Seven nests 

 of the great horned owl were found in a limited region on 

 Merrit's Island; barred owls and hawks were numerous and 

 breeding; raccoons, lynxes and opossums were abundant; while 

 bears, panthers and alligators were so common that, allowing 

 such creatures to be game exterminators, it would seem an 

 unfavorable country for game. All these animals have been 

 much reduced in numbers now, but the game also has decreased 

 enormously. 



We are told that in France to-day (1916), now that nearly 

 every able-bodied man is in the army and little is done to 

 protect the game or to destroy vermin, game has increased so 

 since the war began in 1914 as to become a menace to agri- 

 culture. 



These instances tend to disprove the contention that the 

 natural enemies of birds, and not the hunters, are responsible 

 for the decrease of birds and game. They give no support to 

 the theory, so often advanced, that it is necessary to shoot 

 into the coveys of game birds to "break them up" in order 

 that the individuals may pair and breed. It may be that 

 hawks and other natural enemies attend to such breaking up 



