NATURAL HISTORY. 



491 



chemical effect against the venom itself, 

 and, used in large quantities, does more 

 harm than good. 



In summing up this question, golandrina 

 has received no attention in the works of 

 the numerous students of snake poison. It 

 may possess great healing power, but its 

 action against snake poison is much to be 

 doubted. Fatal effects seldom follow the 

 bite of a small, or even a medium sized 

 snake, if the usual precautions of placing 

 ligatures, followed by laceration and suc- 

 tion, and culminated by the placing of 

 small quantities of permanganate of pot- 

 ash in the wound, are carried out with 

 care. — Editor. 



Sunday afternoon and before breakfast Monday morn- 

 ing, June 3 and 4, rambles in the woods of Pike's hill 

 showed the birds named below: 



THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. 



I recently received a book entitled, 

 "Beasts. Thumb Nail Studies in Pets," 

 by Wardlaw Kennedy, published in 1899. 

 On pages 141, 145, 146 and on to the end, 

 Mrs. Lemon, secretary of the Society for 

 the Protection of Birds, says, "I saw pre- 

 pared for one sale as follows: 



Hummings birds, 116,490. 



Roller and king fishers, 48,759. 



Owls and hawks, 7,163. 



Birds of paradise, 2,362. 



Osprey plumes, 11,352 oz., etc., etc." 



Truly a sight which might make an 

 angel weep! She adds: 



"In 2_ forests in France 15,000 night- 

 ingales, flycatchers and other insect eat- 

 ing birds were captured to supply the de- 

 mands of fashion. One London house or- 

 dered and received 10,000 pairs of wings of 

 seabirds." 



Some other facts follow, even worse. 

 Coquina, how long can the birds stand 

 such murder and exist at all? Of course 

 this is not in our country, but the question 

 ; s, when their kinds are gone, won't they 

 begin on ours? 



H. L. Dillaway, East Boston, Mass. 



ANSWER. 



In spite of such frightful records of 

 murder as detailed above, the millinery 

 people insist that they do not use any 

 song birds in their trade, nor the plumage 

 of any birds except game birds and domes- 

 tic barnyard fowls. 



True, gulls, terns, humming birds, birds 

 of paradise and the like do not sing. 

 Neither are they game birds. Neither are 

 they domestic fowls. Yet dame fashion 

 decrees that they shall be slaughtered in 

 order to ornament the headgear of vain 

 women. 



Thousands of these bird skins are being 

 killed every year for such purposes. — 

 Editor. 



Large hawk, 

 Small hawk, 

 Butcher bird, 

 Brown thrush, 

 Humming bird, 

 Chimney swift, 

 Yellowhammer, 

 Ruffed grouse, 

 Song sparrow, 

 Orchard oriole, 

 Phebe, 

 Chicadee, 

 Canada jay, 

 Bush sparrow, 



American robin, 



Catbird, 



Hermit thrush, 



Yellow warbler, 



Whippoorwill, 



White-throated sparrow, 



English sparrow, 



Night-hawk, 



Baltimore oriole, 



Linnet, 



Bain swallow, 



Small nuthatch, 



Crow, 



Woodpecker. 



Indigo bunting, 



Twelve years ago I made a similar list over the same 

 grounds under similar circumstances. I then found no 

 butcher bird, English sparrow nor humming bird, but did 

 find 



Scarlet tanager, 



Another woodpecker, 



Mountain lark, 



Cedar bird, 



Sand martin, 



Cuckoo, 



Bluebird. 



Bobolink, 



Blue jay, 



Redstart, 



Vireo, 



Martin, 



Wren, 



Kingbird, 



Pewee, 



There are possibly errors in observation, but there was 

 a decrease of more than 50 per cent, in number of 

 individuals. 



I am no naturalist; I simply like to 

 get out in field and forest and see things. 

 On the journey of 12 years ago, I was ac- 

 companied by a friend who was a well 

 read ornithologist. Perhaps I made mis- 

 takes in my identifications of species, but 

 I think not. 



The woods mentioned comprise about 2 

 square miles, and are near the village. It 

 is mixed growth, and a small portion is 

 dense. By cuttings it has been kept in 

 about the same condition yearly for bird 

 habitation. 



The Advertiser has for several years 

 been preaching from the text, "Save the 

 Birds," and will keep the sermons going. 



D. C. Clark, 

 Norway, Me. 



A COMPARISON. 

 Perhaps the enclosed clipping from the 

 Oxford County Advertiser may interest 

 you. 



PORCUPINES AND THEIR ENEMIES. 



In November Recreation are many 

 conflicting statements as to what animal is 

 the natural enemy of the porcupine. 

 M. P. Dunham says the coyote kills them. 



I am not prepared to say what a Mon- 

 tana coyote is capable of doing. In this 

 State the coyote knows enough to let the 

 porcupine alone. 



Near my house is a large gravel bar on 

 the Pend d'Oreille river. While watching 

 there for deer, I saw a porcupine walking 

 along the edge of the water toward me. 

 Presently I saw a large coyote coming up 

 the river. He got within 100 yards of the 

 porcupine before he saw it. The coyote 

 was on the alert in an instant. I could see 

 him trying to smell, but as the wind was 

 wrong he trotted off to one side until he 

 got behind the porcupine. 



He got within 10 or 15 steps of it and 



