DESTRUCTION OF BIRD LIFE. 



STEPS have been taken under the 

 direction of the New York zo- 

 ological society to ascertain, as 

 nearly as possible, to what ex- 

 tent the destruction of bird life has 

 been carried in this country and the re- 

 sult of the investigation is given in its 

 second annual report, recently pub- 

 lished. Replies to questions on the 

 subject were received from over two 

 hundred competent observers in the 

 different states and territories, and the 

 following table is believed to give a 

 fair, certainly not exaggerated, idea of 

 the loss of bird life within the past 

 decade and a half. 



The following are the percentages of 

 decrease throughout the states men- 

 tioned, during the last fifteen years, ac- 

 cording to the reports: 



Maine 52 per cent. 



New Hampshire 32 per cent. 



Vermont 30 per cent. 



Massachusetts 27 per cent. 



Rhode Island 60 per cent. 



Connecticut 75 per cent. 



New York 48 per cent. 



New Jersey 37 per cent. 



Pennsylvania 51 per cent. 



Ohio 38 per cent. 



Indiana 60 per cent. 



Illinois 38 per cent. 



Michigan 28 per cent. 



Wisconsin 40 per cent. 



Iowa 37 per cent. 



Missouri 36 per cent. 



Nebraska 10 per cent. 



North Dakota 58 per cent. 



District of Columbia 33 per cent. 



South Carolina 32 per cent. 



Georgia 65 per cent. 



Florida j'j per cent. 



Mississippi 37 per cent. 



Louisiana 55 per cent. 



Texas 67 per cent. 



Arkansas 50 per cent. 



Montana 75 per cent. 



Idaho 40 per cent. 



Colorado 28 per cent. 



Indian Territory 75 per cent. 



General Average 46 per cent. 



At least three-fifths of the total area 

 of the United States is represented by 

 the thirty states and territories above 

 named, and the general average of de- 

 crease of bird life therein is 46 per cent. 

 These figures are startling indeed and 

 should arouse everyone to the gravity 

 of the situation which confronts us. It 

 requires but little calculation to show 

 that if the volume of bird life has suf- 

 fered a loss of 46 per cent, within fif- 

 teen years, at this rate of destruction 

 practically all birds will be extermin- 

 ated in less than a score of years from 

 now. 



WE BELIEVE IT. 



THERE is no being so homely, none 

 so venomous, none so encased 

 in slime or armed with sword- 

 like spines, none so sluggish or 

 so abrupt in behavior, that it cannot 

 win our favor and admiration — the 

 more, the better we know it. However 

 it may be in human society, with the 

 naturalist it is not familiarity which 

 breeds contempt. On the contrary, it 

 has been said, with every step of his ad- 

 vancing knowledge he finds in what 



was at first indifferent, unattractive, or 

 repulsive, some wonder of mechanism, 

 some exquisite beauty of detail, some 

 strangeness of habit. Shame he feels at 

 having so long had eyes which seeing 

 saw not; regret he feels that the limits 

 of his life should be continually con- 

 tracting, while the boundaries of his 

 science are always expanding; but so 

 long as he can study and examine, he 

 is so far contented and happy. 



