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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 160 



tern and piping plover laid their eggs, and hatched 

 their young. Mow this long stretch of country is 

 as a waste place, for the hand of the destroyer 

 has left but lone remnants of what was once a 

 teeming colony. 



The small hamlet of Seaford is near the centre 

 of tins district, and has contributed largely toward 

 the extermination of the sea-swallows. One of 

 the most active gunners of this place informed the 

 writer that he and his associates had, during the 

 early summer of 1883, sent to market over three 

 thousand terns. The slaughter of these thousands 

 for hat ornamentation is in itself a great evil ; but 

 when we consider that the fifteen hundred pairs 

 killed would have each produced an average of 

 two young, or an aggregate of three thousand 

 additional birds during the season, it becomes 

 evident that the wrong is far-reaching. 



In the vicinity of Moriches, L. I., the same 

 character of marsh prevails, and the same de- 

 struction of seabird-life has been carried on. One 

 of the resident gunners states that the terns are 

 now practically exterminated, while a few years 

 since it would have been an easy matter to shoot 

 fifty birds during a forenoon. An observer at 

 the eastern end of Long Island informs me that 

 the • summer gulls ' (common tems) have greatly 

 decreased in numbers, and the few that are left 

 have become very wild, and difficult of approach. 



The sportsman-poet, Isaac McLellan of Green- 

 port, L.I., in a recent communication, states as 

 follows : " There are many gunners (not sportsmen) 

 whose whole business seems to be to kill off the 

 little vocalists, solely for the sake of disposing of 

 their skins and feathers for the ornamentation of 

 ladies' bonnets. If those good women only knew 

 of the destruction of bird-life that their love for 

 finery occasions, I think they would make it 

 unfashionable to wear the feathers of murdered 

 birds. These gunners point their weapons chiefly 

 at the gulls that haunt our shores, and I hear that 

 they sell them by thousands to the New York 

 dealers, at good prices. Formerly I used to see 

 these pretty flutterers in countless flocks along the 

 bay and seashores, but now they seem to be almost 

 extinct. The bluefish fishermen tell me that this 

 is a serious evil to them, as formerly, when they 

 saw these hovering flocks, they knew that the 

 bluefish were there, and could be easily secured. 

 These bird-exterminators also declare bloody w r ar ' 

 against most other fine-plumaged birds, and 

 gather in the robin, the oriole, the blackbird, the 

 meadow-lark, catbird, and nearly all other kinds 

 of birds." 



As already intimated, the slaughter is not con- 

 fined to sea-birds alone, but is waged with the 

 same destructive force against the more beautiful 



of the land -birds. One gunner informed me that 

 during the winter of 1883 he shot for a middle-man 

 over a thousand cedar-birds (Ampelis cedrorum). 

 If they had been permitted to live until the next 

 season of reproduction, it is fair to assume that 

 each pair would have reared an average of five 

 young, or an aggregate of twenty-five hundred 

 birds. It is a well-known fact that cedar-birds 

 are very voracious eaters, and feed almost exclu- 

 sively, during some months of the year, on the 

 span-worm, canker-worm, and small caterpillars. 

 The damage done the agricultural interests of the 

 country by the destruction of these birds is enor- 

 mous ; but, when we multiply it by the hundreds 

 of thousands that have been shot for the same pur- 

 pose, the damage is beyond calculation. 



An observer in Long Island City states, that, in 

 his vicinity, every bird of bright plumage, such as 

 warblers, woodpeckers, thrushes, orioles, etc., is 

 shot for millinery purposes. In New Jersey the 

 same wholesale destruction of bird-life was carried 

 on, until, as I am informed by the Hon. John 

 W. Griggs, president of the New Jersey senate, 

 " The complaint came up from all parts of the 

 state, of the decrease in the number of song and 

 shore birds. Representation was made to me that 

 certain persons had contracts to furnish birds by 

 the thousands to taxidermists in Philadelphia and 

 New York, and that they proposed to gather their 

 skins in New Jersey. The bill introduced into 

 our legislature for the protection of the buds, 

 passed with only one negative vote, and the effect 

 in my own locality [Paterson] has been excellent.'" 



Another informant states, that, during the 

 summer of 1882, taxidermists were stationed at 

 Barnegat and Beach Haven, N. J., purchasing from 

 the natives every thing in the nature of a sea- 

 bird. Terns of all kinds brought ten cents each, 

 and shore-birds the same price. Many of the bay- 

 men gave up sailing pleasure-parties, and became 

 gunners, because this business was more remunera- 

 tive : as high as fifty dollars, representing five 

 hundred lifeless birds, being made in a week by 

 some. "One cannot help noticing now the 

 scarcity of terns on the New Jersey coast, and it 

 is all owing to the merciless destruction.'' Besides 

 the birds already mentioned as being immolated OB 

 the altar of fashion, thousands of crows, purple 

 grackles (commonly known as crow blackbirds), 

 red- winged blackbirds, and snow-buntings, are 

 used for this purpose. 



\ New York taxidermist informed me that lie 

 had in his shop thirty thousand bird-skins of the 

 species just mentioned, made up expressly for 

 millinery purposes. Should the gunners and taxi- 

 dermists bear the whole blame? I think not, as 

 tiny are only supplying the demand created by 



