CHAPTER X 

 PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF BIRDS 



There are many natural checks to the over-multiplication 

 of birds. They have their natural enemies, such as birds of 

 prey, weasels, minks, foxes, cats, and snakes. There are 

 parasitic and other diseases that destroy many. The ele- 

 ments are especially destructive of bird hfe. On their migra- 

 tions birds are driven out of their course by adverse winds, 

 and falling from exhaustion are killed on the ground. They 

 are also beaten against trees and buildings, or fall into the 

 sea, if they happen to be attempting the passage over the 

 water, and are drowned. Occasionally severe cold waves 

 penetrate far south in winter, and then many of the birds 

 perish. 



Annie Trumbull Slosson describes in Bird-Lore, April, 

 1899, the freezing to death of many birds at Miami, Florida, 

 in February, 1899. " The next morning the sun shone brightly, 

 though the weather was still very cold — the mercury had fal- 

 len below 30 degrees during the night. But as I raised the 

 shades of my eastern windows I saw half a dozen swallows 

 sitting on the window-ledge in the sunshine, while the air 

 seemed again filled with flashing wings. . . . But alas! it 

 was but a remnant that escaped. Hundreds were found 

 dead. Men were sent out with baskets to gather the limp 

 little bodies from the piazzas, ledges, and copings. It was 



