BIRDS 95 



nesting grounds, the coveted feathers are stripped from their 

 backs, the carcasses are left to rot, while the young in the 

 nest above are starving." 



" This slaughter of the innocents is by no means confined 

 to the Southern states. During four months 70,000 bird 

 skins were supplied to the New York trade by one Long 

 Island village. 'On the coast line of Long Island,' wrote 



FIG. 76. Tern. 



Mr. William Butcher, not long ago, 'the slaughter has been 

 carried on to such a degree that, where, a few years since, 

 thousands and thousands of terns (Fig. 76) were gracefully 

 sailing over the surf-beaten shore and the wind-rippled bays, 

 now one is rarely to be seen.' Land birds of all sorts have 

 also suffered in a similar way, both on Long Island and in 

 adjacent localities in New Jersey. Nor have the interior 

 regions of the United States escaped the visits of the milli- 



