OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
SECTION I 
ARE THE BIRDS DECREASING 
AxpouT a year ago Mr. William T. Hornaday com- 
piled what might be termed the first bird census of 
the United States.1 He sent the following set of 
questions to a number of persons in every state and 
territory, excepting Alaska : — 
1. Are birds decreasing in your locality ? 
2. About how many are there now in comparison 
with the number fifteen years ago? One-half as 
many? one-third? one-fourth ? 
8. What agency, or class of men, has been most 
destructive to the birds of your locality ? 
4. What important species of birds or quadrupeds 
are becoming extinct in your state? 
The answers received to those questions and the 
conclusions drawn from them must, on the whole, be 
accepted as trustworthy. The following states reported 
1 The Destruction of our Birds and Mammals,’”’ by W. T. Horna- 
day. In the ‘‘Second Report of the New York Zodlogical Society,” 
New York, 1898. Office of the Society, 69 Wall Street. The most 
valuable document ever published on the subject. 
B 1 
