Birds of Indiana. 5211 



It is marvelous, the destruction of innocent, beneficial lives that 

 have been sacrified upon the altar of fashion. Our State has now a 

 very good law for the protection of our native birds, and it behooves us 

 all to see that in our communities, our separate neighborhoods, that 

 law is fully enforced. Unless this is done we may awake too late to the 

 importance of protecting these feathered friends who gather their sub- 

 stance from the insect enemies of the farm, the orchard, the garden 

 and the woodland. 



Birds are also destroyed in great numbers by natural causes. The 

 sudden severe storms which occur at times in the migrating season 

 often cause the death of a great number of tiny wanderers. It is no 

 unusual thing to find along the shores of Lake Michigan, and numbers 

 of other great lakes, following some severe, cold storm, the bodies of 

 great numbers of migrating birds. How great this loss of life is. 

 cannot be estimated, but they are often found lying close together on 

 the beach where they have been tossed by the waves. Again, it is no 

 unusual thing to find, following a spell of cold weather in April or 

 May, the bodies of many birds which have just arrived from the South: 

 and have been unable to withstand the effects of the sudden cold 

 which came upon them. Other birds which irregularly winter with 

 us, at times when they attempt to remain, are destroyed in great num- 

 bers in unusually severe and unfavorable winter weather. A striking 

 illustration of this was the severe weather of the late winter and early 

 spring of 1895, when, over almost the entire Southern States east of 

 the Mississippi, a cold wave prevailed coincident with the winter range 

 of the Buebirds, Hermit Thrushes, Eobins and other birds occupy- 

 ing that region. These wintering birds were destroyed in great num- 

 bers — so great, in fact, as almost to exterminate the entire race of 

 Bluebirds and to greatly lessen the numbers of some other forms. In 

 addition to this, many birds are destroyed at the time of migration on 

 dark nights by flying against the lighthouses, light towers and other 

 lights in high places. Unfavorable weather during the breeding 

 season is also the cause of large loss of life among the young birds and 

 of the destruction of many eggs. 



In addition, birds are subject to disease, fall a prey to their enemies, 

 are killed by accident, and, as these conditions combine in a favorable 

 or in an unfavorable way, we may note among many species, taking 

 one year with another, an increase or a decrease in their normal 

 numbers. 



