August 6, 1886.] 



SCIEI^CE. 



119 



notoriety is Dr. J. W. Langdon of Cincinnati, and 

 his ' address ' originated in the following manner : 

 Some time since, the Cincinnati society of natural 

 history appointed a committee of three of its 

 ornithological members ' ' to investigate and report 

 on the destruction of native birds." This com- 

 mittee duly made its report, in the form of a series 

 of papers, prepared by the different members of 

 the committee, m wliich veere summarized most 

 of the facts and statements given in the Science 

 supplement on bird-protection, with, in addition, 

 inuch original matter of like character. This re- 

 port was followed by a paper by Dr. Langdon, in 

 which he ridiculed the idea that there had been 

 any perceptible decrease of song-birds in conse- 

 quence of their desti'uction for millinery pur- 

 poses, or from any human influence whatever, 

 while he furthermore claimed that it would be 

 impossible for man to destroy enough small birds 

 to make their absence appreciable. His conclu- 

 sions were based, ostensibly at least, on an esti- 

 mate of the bird population of America, and an 

 assumed rate of natural increase, — both mere 

 guesses, and the latter and his conclusions there- 

 from palpably absurd. Like some of our astute 

 congressmen, he took the precaution to ' revise ' 

 his paper before it was printed, removing many of 

 its grossest absurdities : leaving, however, enough 

 to disgust intelligent ornithologists throughout the 

 country, yet presenting so plausible an aspect as 

 to be misleading to the general reader, unable to 

 detect the false premises, misstatements, and mis- 

 representations of wlaich it is mainly composed. 

 The better j)art of the paper was later given to 

 the readers of a New York daily newspaper ; and 

 its main points are summarized in a recent num- 

 ber of Science (viii. No. 178), and therefore need 

 not be dwelt upon here. 



To answer Dr. Langdon's jDaper in detail is not 

 the purpose of this article. While it would be 

 easy to refute its many absurd conclusions, and 

 expose its misrepresentations, it would take much 

 space to do so. For ornithologists no refutation 

 is necessary ; and it would not be entitled to 

 serious consideration were it not so perniciously 

 misleading to those who know little of the sub- 

 ject. It has, however, been already ably answered 

 by the Cincinnati committee, at a meeting of the 

 Cincinnati society of natural history held June 

 16, at which the consideration of Dr. Langdon's 

 paper was made the special subject of the even- 

 ing. 



As a sufficient answer in the present connection, 

 I subjoin the final rejwrt of the committee of the 

 Cincinnati society on the destruction of native 

 birds, adopted by the society at its meeting held 

 July 6, premising merely that it was adopted 



with only one dissenting vote, and that Dr. Lang- 

 don's. 



Your committee report as follows in the matter sub- 

 mitted to them, and state that they have fully investigated 

 the subject of the destruction of our native birds, and 

 several papers have been prepared and read at three meet- 

 ings of the society. They find : — 



First, That native birds of many species have greatly 

 decreased in numbers over large areas of the country. 

 This is particularly true of those water and game birds 

 about which it is comparatively easy to obtain statistics. 



Second, That the chief cause of such decrease, in ad- 

 dition to climatic changes, natural enemies, clearing up 

 the country, etc., are, — 



(a) The direct destruction of birds for their skins and 

 feathers for decorative and millinery uses ; 



(b) The trapping of birds for cage purposes ; 



(c) The destruction of eggs and nests by men and boys ; 



(d) And the introduction of the European sparrows, 

 which occupy the nesting-places of many native species. 



Three of these causes are preventable, and the evils re- 

 sulting can be greatly lessened : 



First, It no birds be used for decoiation. 



Second, If none of the song-birds and insectivorous 

 species be used for food. 



Third, Jf the laws protecting certain species be backed 

 by a much stronger public opinion, and more rigidly en- 

 forced. 



Fourth, If thoughtless men and boys could be shown the 

 great economic value of birds, and taught the desirability 

 of protecting them and their eggs. 



Your committee find that a wide-spread discussion of 

 the bird question shows more interest in our feathered 

 friends than they had hoped for ; and they trust that 

 Cuvier clubs, Audubon societies, and other clubs of like 

 alms, will continue to flourish on all sides until public 

 sentiment is entirely opposed to the destruction of our 

 native birds. 



R. H. Warder 1 



Uhas. Dury y Committee. 



Wm. Hubbell Fisher ) 



J. A. Allen. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Yucatan. — The indefatigable Charnay, who 

 has just closed another season of exploration in 

 Yucatan, reports that he had been engaged only 

 about six months. His object was to get moulds 

 of the bas-reliefs on the walls of the ancient ruins. 

 These sculptures proved to be much rarer than is 

 generally supposed. Arrived at Izamal, he exca- 

 vated the north side of the pyramid, which he 

 hoped to find entire, but it proved to have been 

 destroyed so that only about eight square metres 

 of carving remained, which were not the less inter- 

 esting on that account. However, in uncovering 

 the base of the pyramid ancient mural paintings 

 were revealed. A sort of chronic insurrection be- 

 tween the Indians of Maya stock and the Spanish- 

 Americans has been going on for many years, and 

 will probably end only with the extermination of 

 one or the other party. In thirty years it is said 

 300,000 people have fallen victims to this conflict. 

 A visite to Koba was prevented by a new incur- 

 sion of the Mayas, and in taking a new direction 

 Charnay came upon an old town, quite unknown, 



