356 USEFUL BIRDS. 



THE DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS BY MAN. 



Man is responsible for the extinction of species or for 

 their disap})earance from great tracts of countr}'. lie cuts 

 down the forest and drives out the larger wood birds. He 

 destroys the birds that injure his crops or flocks. He intro- 

 duces animals w^hich destroy birds, and he shoots birds for 

 food, money, or sport. It is only since civilized man reached 

 this country that the Great Auk has become extinct, and that 

 the Passenger Pigeon, which roamed in countless millions 

 over a continent, has been swept away. It is since then that 

 the Prairie Chicken, once found in the east, and so plentiful 

 in Kentucky that it was considered fit food for slaves and 

 sw^ine only, has been pushed toward the far west. The wild 

 Turkey has been nearly driven out of the Atlantic States by 

 man. The White Egret and the Carolina Parrot have almost 

 disappeared. The Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plover, 

 the Wood Duck, and the Woodcock must follow if not fully 

 protected. Man exterminates birds for money, little recking 

 that he is killing the ''goose that lays the golden Qgg.^^ 



The greatest enemies of game birds, and, therefore, the 

 greatest factors in their extermination, are the epicures, — 

 the people who buy birds to eat. The marketmen merely 

 supply the existing demand. The call for game birds has 

 been so insistent and the price paid for them so remunerative 

 that marketmen have often orofanized to defeat leo-islation for 

 the protection of game. Observing people who have fre- 

 quented the markets have read from the butcher's stall the 

 story of the decrease of game birds. Within thirty j^ears, 

 tons of Passenger Pigeons have stood in barrels in the Bos- 

 ton market, and men now living can remember when the east- 

 ern markets were glutted with Quail and Prairie Chickens. 

 The war of extermination waged on game birds is a blot on 

 the history of American civilization. It is paralleled only 

 by the destruction of birds for millinery purposes, which has 

 some shockingly cruel aspects. 



Here ao;ain the dealers — the milliners — are not so much 

 to blame as the public, for the former cater to the wants 

 of women only as fashion dictates. In civilization we still 



