THE OOLOGLST. 



55 



Texas for 10.000 plumes of egrets (a species 

 of heron, or fish-eating wader). Then, in 

 nuother place is an estimate that the num- 

 ber of grebes shipped, mainly from the 

 Pacific slope of North America, must range 

 far into the ten if not hundreds of thous- 

 sands. And my friend Mr. Dury has drawn 

 your attention to the fact that the herons 

 and other water birds have been destroyed 

 by thousands in the swamps of Florida. 



' 'Now, the argument sought to be sustain- 

 ed by this startling array of figures is that 

 we arein danger of allowing the extermination 

 of species desirable to man on account of 

 their song, or economically valuable to the 

 agriculturist as insect destroyers ; and the 

 poetical quotations and crude generalizations 

 which are invoked to excite our sympathies 

 are such as relate to the latter species-i. e. ; 

 song birds. In other words, while in the 

 statistics cited, mainly gulls, terns, herons, 

 and "shore birds' appear prominently in the 

 foreground, the moral is pointed chiefly, if 

 not entirely, at *song birds' — so that the 

 nonomithological reader is extremely liable 

 to the impression that the figures themselves 

 apply to the 'song birds' as much as to any 

 others, and to have his sympathies aroused 

 accordingly. But when informed that these 

 are almost wholly a marine species-gulls, 

 terns, and 'shore birds'-the scavengers of 

 the ocean and ornithological tramps, so to 

 speak, most of them being migrants, whose 

 home is far beyond the confines of civiliza- 

 tion ; whose only 'song' is a mere "screech or 

 squawk,' anything but musical to human 

 ears, and which are not in any degree bene- 

 ficial to man except for their feathers — these 

 facts considered, does it really seem so bad 

 to make merchandise of their plumage for 

 ornamental purposes? 



"As for the destruction of thousands of 

 herons and other water birds in the swamps 

 of Florida and Texas, this effects neither 

 song birds nor civilization, since their notes 

 are no more pleasing than those of the gulls 

 and terns ; and they are doomed to extirpa- 

 tion regardless of milliners and fashion 

 whenever civilization drains and cultivates 

 their nesting and feeding places. If we look 

 at this part of the subject in an economic 



light, we shall see that these birds, chiefly 

 herons, are the natural enemies of fish, so 

 that their destruction, in the long run, di- 

 rectly favors the increase of food for man. 

 Furthermore, their habitat is in districts en- 

 tirely uninhabitable to the human species, 

 and they would forever remain unknown to 

 man but for the ornithologist, the sports- 

 man, and the milliner. 



Now, leaving the gulls, terns, shore birds, 

 grebes, and herons for the present, let us 

 examine some of the figures of our pessimis- 

 tic friends which do apply to song birds, 

 and their use for millinery purposes. Here 

 we are struck at once with the absence of 

 definite figures, and in their place find such 

 generalization as 'many song birds, and ' war 

 of extermination' on catbirds, robins and 

 thrushes. One New York taxidermist is 

 quoted as having 30,00 skins of 'crows, 

 crow blackbirds, red- winged blackbirds, and 

 snow buntings. ' The first three species of 

 disputed or doubtful benefit to man on their 

 omnivorous diet, and with no song worth 

 mentioning, excepting the clear whistle of 

 the red- winged blackbird; while the fourth 

 species is a far northern sparrow, a winter 

 vistitor only in the United States, irregular- 

 ly distributed, subsisting chiefly on seeds, 

 and with no more song, while with us, than 

 the European sparrows in our streets. 



' 'Again, the extent of territory from which 

 this 30,000 skins were derived is not men- 

 tioned — a very important item, as I shall hope 

 to show later. 



"The most definite observations as to the 

 use of song birds are those of Mr. F. W. 

 Chapman as the result of two afternoon 

 walks in the 'shopping' districts of New York. 

 He gives a list of 40 species observed, of 

 which 15 only can, by the most liberal classi- 

 fication, be denominated song birds, includ- 

 ing two sparrows, which are only winter 

 visitors in the United States. The aggregate 

 number of of individuals belonging to this 

 lot is stated at 174, which may be classified 

 as follows : Song birds and useful species 

 30 ; useful but not song birds, 38 ; birds of 

 doubtf id and negative value, 106. Among 

 those classed as of negative value are some 

 really objectionable as destroyers of useful 



