344 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



averaged eating 150 insects each day, vre then have the enormous numher of 135,000,000 

 of insects saved in this one county in one month that ought to have been destroyed 

 through the influence of birds. When we reflect, further, that many of these birds 

 ■were migratory, and that they helped to keep down the increase of insects in distant 

 regions, the harm that their destruction has done is beyond calculation. The killing 

 of such birds is no local loss ; it is a national, a continental loss. Besides, this destruc- 

 tion of birds was not confined to one county ; it extended to most of the counties in 

 Northeastern Nebraska alone, and to some in Northwestern Iowa at least. 



This disturbance of the balance of nature must therefore affect crops sooner or later 

 in the whole Missouri River region, in British America, and in Mexico. And the sub- 

 ject of the protection of iusectiverous birds must, or ought, sooner or later, to become 

 not only national, but international. Many of these migratory insectivorous birds 

 breed in British America, and winter along our Southern border or in Mexico. Their 

 destruction, therefore, affects the welfare of three nations ; for it can be seen from the 

 data given and the calculations made how important their work must be during the 

 month that they pass through the United States in spring and fall. 



In addition to the destructive agency of poison to which I have just adverted, it is 

 better known how man, for purposes of gain, to fill his table and so-called pleasure, 

 has been destroying countless numbers of birds. If a bird could be used to appease 

 hunger, that has been made an excuse for killing it. Prairie-chickens, quail, plover, 

 curlews, and snipe have been especial sufferers from this source. The two former 

 were, a few years ago, trapped, shot, and carried eastward by the car-load. Trapping 

 is now, fortunately, made illegal, but up to the present year it was still lawful to hunt 

 chickens and quail with dogs from July to January. Hunting these birds with dogs 

 was, in my judgment, fully as fatal to them as trapping. It was comparatively easy 

 for a man with a trained dog to shoot from fifty to two hundred chickens in a day in 

 August, before the young were full grown and before they had become suspicious. 

 During the winter of 1877 a law was enacted forbidding the killing of prairie-chickens 

 and quail and most of our insectivorous birds, but unfortunately there is yet no public 

 sentiment sufficient to enforce it everywhere. As the law now stands on the statute- 

 book, it prevents that wholesale capture of birds for shipment that once prevailed. 

 Vast numbers, however, are yet secretly hunted through the instrumentality of dogs 

 and guns. It is no longer done openly, and the birds obtained can no longer be pub- 

 licly exposed to sale, and the probabilities are that they are now about holding their 

 own. Some of the so-called sporting-men deny that there bas been a great destruc- 

 tion of birds by this means. The following, however, are a few of the public notices 

 of hunts that have taken place : 



[From Omaha Eepublican of September 8, 1865.1 



On the 6th Captain Hoagland's party bagged 422 prairie-chickens, 4 quails, 6 hawks, 

 1 duck, 4 snipe, and 1 rabbit ; total, 4C2. Captain Keanedy's party bagged 287 prairie- 

 chickens, 2 quails, 8 hawks, 15 ducks, 6 snipe, and one rabbit ; total, 353. Excluding 

 the two rabbits, the total number for one day by these two parties was 813 birds. 



[From Omaha Herald of September 10, 1866.1 

 A. Hoagland, esq., of Omaha, killed in one day 192 prairie-chickens. 



In the Herald of September and October, in the years 1867, 1868, and 1869, and 

 down to the present time, there have been notices of the destruction which these 

 hunting or sporting clubs have caused among insectivorous birds. 



A few years ago prairie-chickens and quail, as well as snipe, wild geese, and ducks 

 were exposed for sale during half a year in nearly all the butcher-shops of the State. 

 The following note from Bohannon Brothers indicates the quantity sold by them : 



Dear Sir : In answer to your inquiry, let us observe that we did not keep a very 

 accurate account of the prairie-chickens sold by us; but during 1874 and 1875 it must 

 have averaged at least 18 a day for seven months in a year. — [Bohannon Brothers, Lin- 

 coln, Nebr., November 2, 1877. 



Now, this is one of ten firms in Lincoln engaged in the meat -business, and all were, 

 during these days, engaged in selling prairie-chickens, q,uail, &c., to a greater or lesa 



