BIRDS 



AN ENUMERATION OF THE BIRDS FOUND IN BUCKS COUNTY DUR- 

 ING THE WHOLE OR PART OF THE YEAR. 



BY JOSEPH THOMAS, M. D., QCAKERTOWX, PA. 



Bucks county, in common with other districts of the state, and, in fact, ihe 

 whole country, has suffered a serious decimation of her feathered denizens hy the 

 hand of man. This has been occasioned in various ways. The march of civilization, 

 transforming the face of the county by cutting down and removing the timber growth, 

 once so abundant here, and subjecting the soil to tillage, has destroyed, or at least 

 materially circumbscribed, the haunts of many of our native birds that once made 

 the forest vocal with their song. Like the American Indian, against whom civili- 

 zation has waged a constant and relentless warfare, even to extermination in many 

 cases, so the birds have suffered indiscriminate destruction from the same ruthless 

 foe; the sportsman for pleasure, the ignorant farmer from mistaken motives of 

 protecting his crops, and the thoughtless urchin from promptings of wantonness 

 and mischief, as well as others, actuated by a desire of gain, have contributed like- 

 wise in diminishing the number of birds, formerly so numerous. Unmindful of the 

 mischievous consequences of destroying these ministers of beneficence to man, his 

 hand has been staid only when, comparatively recently, our legislature sounded a 

 truce by enacting laws forbidding the destruction of insectiverous birds, and per- 

 mitting certain game birds to be shot at specified periods in the year. To repair 

 in a measure the damage done in the past, it was found expedient a few years ago 

 to send abroad and import the English sparrow to aid in extinguishing t\\e insect 

 pest that had become such a nuisance. Fifty years or more ago, when Wilson, Audi- 

 bon, and others traversed our woods and fields to study and describe our native fauna, 

 many species of birds, now rare aiid only occasionally seen within our borders, were ob- 

 served in great abundance. 



In 1683 William Penn, Proprietary and governor of Pennsylvania, wrote to the 

 committee of the Free Society of Traders residing in London, in relation to some 

 of the resources of the province, as follows: "Of living creatures, fish, fowl, and the 

 beasts of the wood, there are divers sorts, some for food and profit, and some for 

 profit only. For food, as well as profit, the elk, as big as a small ox, deer bigger 

 than ours, beaver, raccoon, rabbits, squirrels; some eat young bear, and commend it. 

 Of food of the land there is the turkey, forty and fifty pounds weight, which is very 

 great, pheasants, heath birds, pigeons and partridges in abundance. Of the water, 



