200 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 160 



and, as each pair lays three or four eggs, here 

 were at least fifteen or twenty thousand eggs on 

 one small island. Now, when one remembers that 

 there are hundreds and probably thousands of 

 such resorts, where the birds are annually robbed, 

 what must be the havoc, the cruelty, and the un- 

 warrantable sacrifice of these harmless birds ! 

 Is it any wonder that the birds are shy, and hate 

 the very sight of man ? Is it not about time that 

 the bird's side of the question was not only de- 

 fended, but strenuously championed ? The effect 

 of this heartless and cold-blooded trampling upon 

 the domestic instincts of birds is not calculated to 

 encourage amicable and social relations between 

 them and man, but quite the contrary, as the 

 following observation will show. 



I have seen laughing gulls, and royal and 

 Caspian terns, upon being driven from their nests, 

 deliberately dash at, and destroy with their bills, 

 every egg exposed in the vicinity of their nests, 

 not excepting those of their own species. Their 

 very nature seems changed by this heartless per- 

 secution ; or, recognizing the purpose of man's 

 invasion, they intelligently and deliberately 

 attempt to thwart his purposes by destroying the 

 prize he covets. Such is the influence man exerts 

 over these intelligent and persecuted birds, instead 

 of making friendly advances to them, and by 

 kindness encouraging in them their naturally 

 docile and amiable propensities. How strongly in 

 contrast is this with the pleasant sight at Geneva, 

 Switzerland, where happy crowds of visitors 

 delight in giving crumbs to the friendly gulls that 

 flock about the bridges, feeding almost from the 

 very hands of the people ! There is no reason why 

 the gulls, terns, herons, and other water-birds 

 should not constitute one of the chief attractions 

 at our seaside resorts, enlivening them with their 

 grace and beauty. 



In regard to the profits of the 4 egging business,' 

 I doubt if even the most successful ' egger ' can 

 make as much money as he would have done had 

 he tuck to his regular and much more praise- 

 worthy occupation. The quality of wild bird's 

 eggs is inferior to that of the eggs of the domestic 

 fowl, and consequently their price is low, and 

 frequently barrels of them are thrown away as 

 unsalable. This destruction, therefore, has no 

 excuse in necessity as a source of food-supply. 



If a tithe of the truth were known throughout 

 the country at large, concerning the sacrifice of 

 bird-life in the names of 4 business,' 4 enterprise,' 

 4 food,' 4 sport,' and what not, from Maine to 

 Mexico, and from California to Alaska, there would 

 be such a cry of remonstrance as would make the 

 bird-destroyers hang their heads for shame. 



Another fact not generally known beyond the 



scene of its occurrence, relating, however, to 

 the destruction of young birds, rather than to 

 eggs, may be here stated, which for devilish 

 4 enterprise ' exceeds any thing that has ever come 

 under my notice. In 1877, and also in 1878, while 

 studying the birds about Corpus Christi Bay, 

 Texas, I examined a low grass-flat called Pelican 

 Island, so named on account of the numbers of 

 brown pelicans that had for years taken it for 

 their breeding-place, to the exclusion of all other 

 species. Here many thousands of these great 

 birds were tending their eggs and young, breeding 

 in such numbers that one could step or jump 

 from nest to nest, over nearly, if not quite, every 

 square yard of the island. Four years later I 

 cruised over the same course, and noticed that 

 the pelicans had deserted this grassy island entirely, 

 and were scattered, in diminished numbers, on 

 other islands which were not occupied by them 

 when I made my former trips. On inquiring into 

 the cause of this change, I learned from prominent 

 citizens, that two or three enterprising (?) men 

 had conceived the idea of making their fortunes 

 from pelican-oil, and had erected 4 trying-out ' 

 shanties on the mainland. They went to the 

 island in question in large boats, and carried off 

 cargoes of young pelicans in all stages of growth, 

 and boiled them up for their oil. The only satis- 

 faction I could get from the history of this experi- 

 ment was, that the men could not sell the oil, and 

 had nothing but their nefarious labor for their 

 pains. Think of the enormous sacrifice of life for 

 a foolish experiment ! This heartless slaughter 

 is hardly equalled in cruelty by the so-called sport 

 of the union troops during the war against 

 secession, who, while idly lying in transports off 

 the passes along the coast, amused themselves by 

 fastening a fish to a plank which was so weighted 

 as to be quite submerged : they would then watch 

 the pelicans dive for the fish, while bets were 

 freely interchanged as to the probability of the bird 

 getting a broken neck, with the odds decidedly 

 in favor of the death of the pelican. Instances 

 without number might be given to show that man, 

 unchecked by law, will ruthlessly destroy the 

 very things most useful to him if preserved and 

 protected. 



The question may be asked, What are pelicans, 

 cormorants, gulls, terns, and herons good for V It 

 may be answered, If for nothing else, they are 

 good to look at and to give life and beauty to the 

 shores and bays. They most assuredly do no 

 harm : on the contrary, they are the scavengers of 

 the shoal waters of our shores, as the buzzards 

 are of the land ; and if it were not that the water- 

 birds keep in check the superabundance of almost 

 valueless fishes and other animals that multiply in 



