158 SIDE THOUGHTS ABOUT BIRDS. 



the importation of the European Sparrow, which has become 

 an unmixed nuisance, occupying as it does densely populated 

 town and city districts, where its presence is of no imagi- 

 nable utility, its bulky nests an increasing disfigurement, and 

 its ceaseless chirp a perennial annoyance. 



To the preservation and increase of our native game-birds 

 effort has been directed for many years, and with the rapid 

 diminution of wild land and equally rapid growth of a 

 market for such game, the need of more effective protection 

 is yearly pressing. Certain game-birds, once everywhere 

 plentiful, are by their very habits inevitably doomed to 

 practical disappearance, such as the Wild Pigeon and 

 perhaps the Turkey. But there is a large class of such birds 

 — Woodcock, Snipe, Quail, the various species of Grouse, 

 and some others — which, far from being interfered with by 

 simple proximity to man, are really enabled to increase 

 more rapidly by his occupation of the land, since much of 

 their food is derived from wind-scattered grain, and favor- 

 able cover is afforded by brushy clearings which have 

 replaced former timber lands. 



Such game-birds, then, as are not disturbed by changed 

 conditions incident upon removal of forests and cultivation 

 of the soil, may evidently be augmented in numbers by ap- 

 propriate management. Whatever legislation can effect has 

 probably been already undertaken, but there remains the 

 really important need of awakening intelligent appreciation 

 of the importance of such laws, and of forming a public 

 sentiment in which alone resides their enforcement. 



Laws prohibiting the taking of game-birds at other than 

 prescribed seasons will be evaded so long as there are ready 

 purchasers for them, and hundreds of barrels of Quail and 

 Pinnated Grouse will continue to be shipped to cities v.-hile 

 dealers are ready to profit thereby and the supply holds out. 



From what seems to the writer a reasonable point of view, 

 ■wild game is to be regarded as a natural and to a certain 

 degree limited source of food-supply, capable of being re- 



