in South Carolina 11 



Wood Ducks, Wilson's Snipe decreasing. There are less 

 than one-half as many of the three former as fifteen years 

 ago. Agencies responsible for the decrease are: market 

 hunting; hunting out of season; guns in the hands of irre- 

 sponsible boys; draining swamps; burning over woods and 

 fields; especially negroes, and hunting Wild Turkeys and 

 Woodcock out of season by white men whom I know; 

 deforestation of country which is now rapid. The Wood- 

 cock is surely approaching extinction. 



"Among natural enemies, cats, Cooper's and Sharp- 

 shinned Hawks are destructive. Insectivorou? birds are 

 plentiful, except Pine Warbler, Brown-headed Nuthatch, 

 Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman's Sparrow, caused 

 by cutting away enormous areas of pine timber. Game 

 laws are not enforced. They are neither known nor re- 

 spected by white men much less negroes. Almost every 

 negro has a gun now and he shoots anything in sight. The, 

 gun should be taken away from the negro as well as the 

 white man who knows the la.w but disrespects it. Make 

 him pay a heavy fine and game birds will increase." 



Dr. Murphey finds that bird life is decreasing gradu- 

 ally, there being only about half as many birds as .there 

 were fifteen years ago, and that the decrease has been 

 continuing thruout the period of his experience. In his 

 opinion, the decrease is due to sportsmen, market hunters, 

 negroes, nest robbers, irresponsible boys with guns, drain- 

 ing s\yamps, destruction of fence rows and hedges, wan- 

 dering dogs which destroy the nests of ground-nesting 

 birds, and the English Sparrow by crowding out native 

 birds in towns and cities and extending its range into the 

 country. Locally Woodcock and Wood Ducks are rapidly 

 nearing extinction, due to defective laws in the past. Red- 

 headed Woodpeckers and Meadowlark are increasing; the 

 former by coming into the cities. He reports a great 

 decrease in Nighthawks and Purple Martins up to three or 

 four years ago, but now they are better protected; all 

 other birds are decreasing. 



