244 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD WORLD 
8,058 Snow Buntings! 7,560 Grouse, 
7,607 Sandpipers! 4,385 Quail, 
5,218 Plover! 1,756 Ducks, 
7,003 Snipe, 288 Bobolinks, 
788 Yellow Legs, 96 Woodcock. 
And all this in one cold-storage warehouse, for poor, 
starving New York! 
To the public it was a profound surprise to find that 
snow buntings and sandpipers were being slaughtered by 
thousands for food. At that time at least half a dozen 
species of song-birds were served on bills of fare under the 
name of “reed bird.”’ This fact is equivalent to a notice that 
hereafter no bird is safe from the deadly “‘market-shooter,” 
and only the strictest watch and the severest measures will 
save any considerable portion of our birds. 
But a better day has dawned over New York. The en- 
actment of the justly famous “‘ Bayne law”’ (1911), absolutely 
closing all markets, hotels and restaurants in New York 
state against the sale of native wild game of all kinds, wrought 
for New England a revolution. In 1912 Massachusetts 
followed the good example of New York; and in 1913 Cali- 
fornia, after a long and bitter fight, passed similar laws which 
to-day the enemies of wild life are trying hard to repeal. 
Protect tHE Birps.—The birds are the natural pro- 
tectors of the farm, the garden, the orchard and the forests 
from the hordes of insects which without them ravage leaf, 
flower and fruit. But for the hawks and owls, the wild mice 
and rats soon would multiply into an intolerable pest. But 
for the insectivorous birds, destroying grubs and perfect in- 
sects by the million, the life of the farmer, fruit-grower and 
