59 
Italians and Greeks are the people principally complained 
of. This shooting and trapping by foreigners is general. 
Complaints on this score came in as follows: from Berk- 
shire County, eight; Hampden, six; Hampshire, two; Frank- 
lin, two ; Worcester, fourteen ; Middlesex, twelve ; Essex, 
nine; Suffolk, four; Plymouth, two; Bristol, two; Horfolk, 
six; while two report it from the State in general. 
This is the greatest danger which now threatens the 
smaller birds of Massachusetts and several other States. 
Mr. H. S. Hathaway of Providence, R. I., writes : “ This 
fall there have been numerous complaints of foreigners 
shooting song birds.” Complaints of this sort are coming 
from most of the Atlantic States. In the South Atlantic 
and Gulf States, foreigners and natives, especially negroes, 
shoot small birds in winter for the market. Unless we pro- 
tect them here on their breeding grounds from this Euro- 
pean invasion, their numbers must soon diminish, as has 
already happened in some parts of Italy and other Mediter- 
ranean countries. 
Boys with Guns. — Boys with guns are about as destruc- 
tive to small birds as foreigners. The u air rifles ” and other 
guns, given as premiums by boys’ papers, soap manufacturers 
and others, slay their thousands. Dwight Whiting wrote 
some years since, in “ The Country Gentleman,” that one 
boy’s record for his air rifle was four hundred and seventy 
song birds. Several of his companions had done better than 
this. They had no use for the birds, and were only shooting 
for a record. The numerous advertisements of boy’s guns 
show that they meet with a ready and profitable sale. When 
a boy is out with a gun looking for legitimate game, and 
does not find it, he will shoot something else; and as long as 
boys are allowed to carry loaded guns, the small birds are 
sure to suffer. Very few boys know the game laws. Most 
of this shooting is illegal, and the boys should be arrested. 
Miss Juliet Porter writes from Worcester that boys there are 
shooting English sparrows and other native sparrows, con- 
founding one with the other. Such mistakes will always be 
made if boys are allowed to carry guns of any kind. 
Milliners' Hunters and Taxidermists. — Those who write 
