SCIENCE.-Supplement. 



FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1886. 



THE PRESENT WHOLESALE DESTRUC- 

 TION OF BIRD-LIFE IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. 



In the bird-world, as elsewhere, the struggle for 

 existence, even under natural conditions, is a se- 

 vere one, undue increase being held well in check. 

 Birds, and their eggs and young, are not only the 

 natural prey of many predaceous mammals and 

 reptiles, but also of predaceous birds. Squirrels, 

 spermophiles, and mice, although not in a strict 

 sense rapacious, are among the worst natural 

 enemies of the smaller birds, whose eggs and 

 young they seek and devour with avidity ; 

 while many birds not usually classed as pred- 

 atory, as the jays, crows, grackles, cuckoos, 

 and some others, wage unremitted warfare upon 

 the eggs and young of the weaker species. The 

 elements are also far more destructive of bird-life 

 than is commonly recognized. Late cold storms 

 in spring destroy many of the early migrants, 

 sometimes nearly exterminating certain species 

 over considerable areas where they had become 

 prematurely settled for the season. The unusual 

 southward extension of severe cold waves and 

 heavy snow-falls, such as have marked the present 

 winter, are destructive to the bird-life of the re- 

 gions thus exceptionally visited. During the mi- 

 grations, both in the fall and spring, immense 

 numbers of birds are sometimes caught by storms, 

 and blown far out to sea and drowned, or perish 

 in attempts to cross the larger inland lakes. There 

 is abundant evidence to show that the annual de- 

 struction of birds by the elements alone must 

 prove a severe check upon their increase. But all 

 this is a part of nature's routine, which has char- 

 acterized past ages as well as the present, and 

 which, so far as we know, may be only the natu- 

 ral and necessary check upon undue increase. It 

 is only when man comes upon the scene that 

 nature's balance is seriously disturbed. 



Man's destructive influence is to some extent 

 unavoidable, but in far greater part selfish and 

 wanton. The removal of forests, the drainage of 

 swamps and marshes, the conversion of wild lands 

 into farms, and the countless changes incident to 

 the settlement of a country, destroy the haunts 

 and the means of subsistence of numerous forms 

 of animal life, and practically result in their ex- 



termination over vast areas. The birds, particu- 

 larly the larger species, suffer in common with 

 vertebrate life in general. Electric-light towers, 

 light-houses, and light-ships are also a fruitful 

 and modern source of disaster to birds, particu- 

 larly during their migrations, when, in thick 

 weather, thousands upon thousands kill them- 

 selves by dashing against these alluring obstruc- 

 tions. Telegraph-wires contribute also largely to 

 the destruction of bird-life. While the destruc- 

 tion by these agencies is greatly to be regretted, 

 it is not directly chargeable to cupidity and heart- 

 lessness, as is the far greater slaughter of birds in 

 obedience to the dictates of fashion, presently to 

 be detailed. 



The history of tins country, as is well known, is 

 the record of unparalleled destruction of the larger 

 forms of animal life. Much of this destruction, 

 it is true, was unavoidable, sooner or later. But 

 it is no less true that the extirpation of our larger 

 game animals has been needlessly hastened by 

 what may be fairly termed a disgraceful greed for 

 slaughter, — in part by ' pot-hunting ' on a grand 

 scale, in part for the mere desire to kill something, 



— the so-called ' love of sport.' The fate of exter- 

 mination, which, to the shame of our country, has 

 already practically overtaken the bison, and will 

 sooner or later prove the fate of all of our larger 

 game-mammals and not a few of our game-birds, 

 will, if a halt be not speedily called by en- 

 lightened public opinion, overtake scores of our 

 song-birds, and the majority of our graceful and 

 harmless, if somewhat less ' beneficial,' sea and 

 shore birds. 



The decrease in our song and shore birds is al- 

 ready attracting attention ; and the protest against 

 it, which reaches us from many and widely dis- 

 tant parts of the country, is not only painful evi- 

 dence of this decrease, but gives hope that the 

 wave of destruction, which of late years has moved 

 on in ever-increasing volume, has at last reached 

 its limit of extension, and that its recession will 

 be rapid and permanent. But to secure this re- 

 sult, the friends of the birds — the public at large 



— must be thoroughly aroused as to the magni- 

 tude of the evil, and enlightened as to its causes 

 and the means for its retrenchment. It is there- 

 fore the purpose of the present series of papers to 

 throw some light upon the extent, the purposes, 

 and the methods of the present wholesale slaugh- 

 ter of our native birds. 



Birds are killed for food, for ; sport,' for natural- 



