734 Destruction of Birds by Telegraph Wire. [December, 
M. Pasteur at the close of his paper stated verbally that, al- 
though the urine of a healthy man contains no extraneous germs 
of organic bodies, in most cases it comes into contact with such 
germs at the moment of its emission at the extremity of the ure- 
thral canal, or in the surrounding air. He also described the very 
simple apparatus he employed to repeat Dr. Bastian’s experi- 
ments with decisive results. It is a pity that no details of this 
are given in Comptes rendus. , 
Dr. Bastian’s reply to Pasteur’s criticism, and the latter’s re- 
joinder, will be found in Comptes rendus for July 31st and 
August 7th ; they add nothing to the preceding. — Monthly Mi- 
eroscopical Journal, October. 
THE DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS BY TELEGRAPH WIRE. 
BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A. 
TR is a subject which has already attracted deserved atten- 
tion in Europe, and I believe that much has been said about 
it, particularly by German writers. But in this country the 
facts in the case seem to have been to a great degree overlooked, 
or at any rate insufficiently set forth in the random notices which, 
like the accounts of the mortality caused by light-houses, have 
occasionally appeared. Yet the matter is one of much interest, 
as I shall here take opportunity to note. Few persons, probably, 
even among ornithologists, realize what an enormous number of 
birds are killed by flying against these wires, which now form a 
murderous net-work over the greater part of the country. Until 
` recently, I had myself no adequate idea of the destruction that 1s 
so quietly, insidiously, and uninterruptedly accomplished. My 
observations do not enable me to form even an approximate esti- 
mate of the annual mortality, and I suppose we shall never pos- 
sess accurate data; but I am satisfied that many hundred thou- 
sand birds are yearly killed by the telegraph. The evidence I 
shall present may be considered sufficient to bear out a seemingly 
extravagant statement. 
I recently had occasion to travel on horseback from Denver, 
Colorado, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, a distance of one hundred and 
ten miles, by the road which, for a considerable part of the way» 
coincided with the line of the telegraph. It was over rolling 
prairie, crossed by a few affluents of the South Platte, along the 
eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. The most abundant birds 
of this stretch of country, at the time (October), were horned 
