CHAPTER IX 
SONG BIRDS AS FOOD 
THE disgraceful killing of song birds for food has 
already caused fearful destruction among the birds in 
some sections of our country. From Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Michigan, 
North Carolina, and New Orleans come reports saying 
that song birds, and, in fact, practically every kind of 
bird is shot, sold, and devoured as game. The crim- 
inals are mostly French, Italian, and Hungarian labor- 
ers in the northern states, and negroes, Italians, and 
French creoles in the southern states. Robins, thrushes, 
flickers, native sparrows, and even swallows are sold in 
the markets of New Orleans, In 1897, two thousand 
‘six hundred robins were received by one dealer in 
Washington, D.C., ina single month. The birds were 
shipped from North Carolina and had been killed while 
roosting. 
The only kind of teaching this class of criminals is 
capable of appreciating are the programmes dictated by 
the judges and carried out by state prison wardens and 
county sheriffs. The League of American Sportsmen 
and the Audubon Societies are now extending their 
work into the southern states, and they will not hesitate 
to have the laws applied; and every good citizen should 
help them in this duty. 
90 
