240 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD WORLD 



hundred and eighty competent and conscientious observers, 

 representing thirty-four states and territories, reports were 

 received in answer to a series of questions, all of which were 



carefully tabulated. 1 Throughout my calculations, wherever 



* 

 a doubt existed, the living birds were given the full benefit 



of it. 



Four states, Kansas, Wyoming, Utah and Washington, 

 showed an increase in bird life. Thirty states showed de- 

 creases varying from ten per cent to ninety per cent, but 

 with a general average decrease from 1883 to 1898 of forty- 

 six per cent ! In the adjoining diagram, the shaded portions 

 show the percentages of decrease throughout the states 

 named during the period reported upon. 



DECREASE IN BIRD LIFE 



Since the inquiry of 1898 was made, the volume of 

 bird life in the United States has undergone the following 

 changes : 



The closing of the game markets of New York and Massa- 

 chusetts has caused a great increase in water-fowl throughout 

 the northeastern quarter of the United States. 



The shore birds have so alarmingly decreased that ex- 

 tinction threatens many species unless the new federal mi- 

 gratory bird law, protecting all species save six from all 

 shooting during the next five years, succeeds in bringing them 

 back. Their return is doubtful. 



The slaughter of song-birds by Italians in the North, and 



1 "The Destruction of Our Birds and Mammals." By William T. Hornaday. 

 Second Annual Report (1898) of the New York Zoological Society. 



