THfi OOLOQIST 



185 



the winter no doubt he would meet 

 the same fate. 



On the gulf coast, especially in New 

 Orleans, there are many people of 

 foreign extraction and especially 

 Italians. The traffic in small birds 

 held out there longer than elsewhere 

 and reedbirds (redbirds and bob-o- 

 links), robins, waxwings, meadow- 

 larks and flickers, together with 

 shore birds were exposed for sale and, 

 among the classes mentioned, were in 

 demand. This has been stopped years 

 ago and it is hardly fair to incrimi- 

 nate all the people south of the Ohio 

 river for a practice which was never 

 general and which has been abolished 

 where it did prevail. If Mr. Shields 

 will journey south and show me a 

 city where song birds are sold as he 

 states, I shall be glad to pay his ex- 

 penses for the trip. Wliile here I 

 should like to have him absorb the 

 fact that there are twice as many 

 bird houses per capita in the gulf 

 states as there are on his native 

 heath. The south was the pioneer in 

 the bird box business and in many 

 sections no hut is complete without 

 its Martin box. 



The Meadowlark, bob-white and 

 prairie chicken, says Mr. Shields 

 have been "swept away" by our gun- 

 ners, but this statement is merely 

 another gross exaggeration. The 

 Meadowlark is one of the most abund- 

 ant birds to be found between the 

 Gulf and the Ohio. The prairie 

 chicken was never found in the south 

 east of the Mississippi river, save for 

 a few in western Kentucky. May I 

 ask the Colonel if our southern hunt- 

 ers exterminated the vast number 

 that formerly occurred in the north? 

 The bob-white was formerly common 

 in the north as well as in the south. 

 There are so few left in the north 

 now that nearly all the national field 

 trials for hunting dogs are held in the 



south where the birds are still plenti- 

 ful. 



The startling statement that only 

 ten per cent of the birds which mi- 

 grate south of the Ohio river return 

 in the spring, is not borne out by my 

 field notes. I am much afield during 

 migration season and my spring lists 

 usually double those of the autumn. 

 Of course, I am aware of the fact that 

 no increase has taken place mean- 

 while but the observation tends to re- 

 fute the calumny. Those that do not 

 return have not become the ingred- 

 ients of "pot pies" since that "south- 

 ern dish" passed about the time the 

 people of the northern states wiped 

 out the last breeding colony of wild 

 pigeons. 



Mr. Shields is enumerating the 

 "four great killing forces" adverse to 

 an increase in bird life has left out 

 the greatest, viz: natural enemies. 



The three greatest natural enemies 

 of our song birds are the grackle, the 

 jay and the cat. Our birds are at- 

 tracted by the farm yards and villages 

 and here to we tolerate these great 

 natural enemies. In Nashville, Tenn. 

 I find that the Bronzed Grackle breaks 

 up more nests than any other natural 

 enemy and woe to the vireo or wood 

 pewee that builds within earshot of a 

 jay. The cat gets in its deadly work 

 just after the young have left the 

 nest. These three great natural 

 enemies cause the loss of probably 

 twice as many birds as the four 

 enumerated by Mr. Shields. 



The South is admitedly behind in 

 Audubon work and in nature study, 

 but it's people are of a kindly nature 

 and are possessed of no greater desire 

 to slaughter than those of any other 

 section in our realm. Mr. Shields' 

 statements are therefore born either 

 of his narrowness or his lack of ev- 

 perience in the South. 



Nashville, Tenn. 



A. F. Ganier. 



