56 



THE OOLOGIST. 



species, namely, the shrikes and jays. The 

 others in the negative list are chiefly terns,, 

 gulls, grebes, and shore birds. 



' 'To this I may add my own observation, 

 made yesterday, of a wholesale milliner's 

 stock in this city. Taking a dozen or two 

 of boxes at random from the the stock, here 

 is the list : Twenty-four tropical blackbirds 

 (South American;) 24 tropical orioles; 20 

 tropical kingfishers-habitat Mexican border 

 to Brazil ; 12 tropicals, (South American ;) 

 6 large and very wicked-looking jays, (not 

 recognized as North American ;) 6 pigeons of 

 a species whose habitat is West Indies, Cen- 

 tral and South America ; 12 white-shouldered 

 blackbirds, not North American ; 24 maroon 

 tanagers, Brazilian; 6 heads of California 

 quail; 1 Ked-shouldered blackbird; 137 skins, 

 of which 7 only are undoubtedly North 

 American, and none of these 7 song birds. 



' T should not omit to mention the state- 

 ment of my friend Mr. Dury as to seeing 

 'bluebirds by the bushel' in a taxidermist's 

 stock in New Jersey. Now Mr. Dury does 

 not say how many bushels, but we may 

 suppose three bushels at one hundred skins 

 to the bushel to be a pretty fair stock. 

 Three hundred bluebirds killed in the State 

 of New Jersey, with an area of 8, 320 square 

 miles, is equal to one to about every thirty 

 square miles and we are not assured that 

 they were taken in one season either. Does 

 any one suppose that this one bluebird to 

 thirty square miles would create a noticeable 

 gap in the fauna? but how small are these 

 figures, and how scanty the facts as compar- 

 ed with those relating to the gulls, terns, 

 herons, &e. To be sure, we find mentioned 

 by Mr. Allen, and quoted by your committee, 

 'the million of rail and bobolinks' killed in 

 a single season near Philadelelphia. These, 

 however, have been destroyed annually for 

 the benefit of Philadelphia and New York 

 epicures for many years before bird wearing 

 came into fashion, so it is out of the question 

 to charge their destruction to 'bird wearing 

 ladies. ' And even with this formidable rate 

 of destruction we do not see that either 

 species has become extinct or even noticeably 

 diminished in numbers. Bat suppose we 

 consider, for the sake of argument, that birds 



are destroyed equally for millinery purposes 

 — songsters and beneficial species along with 

 those of negative value economically consid- 

 ered. To what extent are bird wearers 

 responsible for their destruction? 



' 'Prominent among the statements made 

 in Mr. J. A. Allen's paper, and quoted by 

 your committee in the use of birds for mil- 

 linery purposes, is the assertion that 10, 000. 

 000 American women are of a 'bird -wearing 

 age and proclivities. ' Some might consider 

 this an exaggeration, which it probably is. 

 but for the sake of a basis we will admit it to 

 be true. Mr. Allen further estimates, al- 

 lowing for the making-over necessities of the 

 economically disposed ladies, that 5,000,000 

 birds per year will be required to satisfy the 

 demand. 



"Now, what effect practically will this 

 have on the bird fauna of America, for as 

 two-thirds or more of the birds of any one 

 North American locality are migrants, and 

 many of them pass from South to North 

 America, and vice versa, we must estimate 

 the effect on the continet at large, as we do 

 not limit the bird wearing ladies to any one 

 locality. Moreover, the ornithologist who 

 attempts to identify the contents of boxes of 

 birds skins in our millinery establishments 

 will find the vast majority of exotic forms, 

 as I have already noted. The ultimate in- 

 fluence of the destruction of birds, then 

 must be estimated by the number of birds 

 in the whole country. Now, unfortunately 

 for our purpose, we have no reliable census 

 of American birds, as applied to individ- 

 uals, but, following the example of Mr. 

 Allen, we may estimate that 15,000,000 

 tquare miles comprised in North America 

 and West India Islands will average at 

 least 200 birds to to the square mile, (and I 

 think my ornithological friends that are 

 present will agree with me that this is an 

 exceedingly moderate estimate.) 



"According to our estimate, then, we 

 would have a bird population in the 

 Americas of §,000, 000, 000— that this is not 

 an excessive estimate is e-\idenced by the 

 fact that Alexander Wilson computed the 

 number of pigeons alone in a single flight is 

 over 2,000,000,000 or 1,500,000,000 pairs. 



