228 THE IMPOETANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



measures, however, the slaughter of game-birds 

 showed signs of increasing rather than decreasing. 

 More men had entered the profession. Out of the 

 ordinary two-barreled, breech-loading shot-gun, 

 a six-shot pump-gun had been evolved, and from 

 this an automatic weapon which could be fired five 

 times in succession by merely pulling the trigger. 

 These weapons proved about as dangerous to birds 

 as the old swivel-guns and nets. As a result 

 prairie chickens began to follow the same road 

 over which the heath hens had gone. Car-load 

 upon car-load was shipped from the West to the 

 Eastern cities. Ducks continued to arrive at 

 the market in countless thousands. Shorebirds, 

 golden plover, and snipe could be bought "dirt 

 cheap." And all the while the city markets cried 

 for more. 



So great was the created demand that song- 

 birds began to be treated like game-birds. Robins 

 were killed in tens of thousands in the Southern 

 States. One hundred and twenty thousand were 

 shipped yearly from one small village in Tennes- 

 see. Bobolinks found great favor with the epi- 

 cures. Three quarters of a million were sent 

 from Georgetown, South Carolina, in one season. 

 Millions were consumed locally. And other song- 

 birds, such as snow-buntings and meadow-larks, 

 were sold as game. 



Market shooting had proved too profitable for 

 the welfare of game. A certain hunter on Long 



