INTRODUCTION. ' XXXI 
are destructive to the bird-life of the regions thus exceptionally visited. During the 
migrations, both in the fall and spring, immense numbers of birds are sometimes caught 
by storms, and blown far out to sea and drowned, or perish in attempts to cross the 
larger inland lakes. There is abundant evidence to show that the annual destruction of 
birds by the elements alone must prove a severe check upon their increase. But all this 
is a part of nature’s routine, which has characterized past ages as well as the present, 
and which, so far as we know, may be only the natural and necessary check upon 
undue increase. It is only when man comes upon the scene that nature’s balance is 
seriously disturbed. 
“Man’s destructive influence is to some extent unavoidable, but in far greater 
part selfish and wanton. The,removal of forests, the drainage of swamps and marshes, 
the conversion of wild lands into farms, and the countless changes incident to the settle- 
ment of a country, destroy the haunts and the means of subsistence of numerous forms 
of animal life, and practically result in their extermination over vast areas. The birds, 
particularly the larger species, suffer in common with vertebrate life in general. Electric- 
light towers, light-houses, and light-ships are also a fruitful and modern source of dis- 
aster to birds, particularly during their migrations, when, in thick weather, thousands 
upon.thousands kill themselves by dashing against these alluring obstructions. Tele- 
graph-wires contribute also largely to the destruction of bird-life. While the destruction 
by these agencies is greatly to be regretted, it is not directly chargeable to cupidity and’ 
heartlessness, as is the far greater slaughter of birds in obedience to the dictates of 
fashion. 
“The history of this country, as is well known, is the record of unparalleled 
destruction of the larger forms of animal life. Much of this destruction, it is true, was 
unavoidable, sooner or later. But it is no less true that the extirpation of our larger 
game animals has been needlessly hastened by what may be fairly termed a disgraceful 
greed for slaughter,—in part by ‘pot-hunting’ on a grand scale, in part for the mere 
desire to kill something,—the so-called ‘love of sport.’ The fate of extermination, which, 
to the shame of our country, has already practically overtaken the bison, and will 
sooner or later prove the fate of all of our larger game-mammals and not a few of our 
game-birds, will, if a halt be not speedily called by enlightened public opinion, overtake 
scores of our song birds, and the majority ‘of our graceful and harmless, if somewhat 
less ‘beneficial,’ sea and shore birds. 
“The decrease in our song and shore birds is already attracting attention; and 
the protest against it, which reaches us from many and widely distant parts of the 
country, is not only painful evidence of this decrease, but gives hope that the wave of 
destruction, which of late years has moved on in ever-increasing volume, has at last 
reached its limit of extension, and that its recession will be rapid and permanent. But 
to secure this result, the friends of the birds—the public at large—must be thoroughly 
aroused as to the magnitude of the evil, and enlightened as to its causes and the means 
for its retrenchment. It is therefore the purpose of the present series of papers to throw 
some light upon the extent, the purposes, and the methods of the present wholesale 
slaughter of our native birds. 
“Birds are killed for food, for ‘sport,’ for natural-history specimens, to stuff as 
