5 
DECREASE IN NUMBER OF BIRDS. 
It is a mournful fact, of history, that during the 
past few years there has been a steady decrease in 
the number of our native birds in all parts of the 
country where man has formed his settlements. To 
account for this fact is easy. Man enters the forests 
which lor hundreds of years have been the undis¬ 
turbed nursery of birds, lie cuts down the trees in 
Woodpeckers. 
top. ITis children search the woods for birds’-eggs 
and bring them home to be admired a moment as 
playthings, without a thought of the happy homes 
they have destroyed lor the sake of a moment’s pleas¬ 
ure. In short, man has soon taught the creatures, 
who scarcely feared him at first, that he is a monster 
to be dreaded, who will give them no rest nor peace. 
Tims it happens, that, as the centuries roll on, one 
species alter another grows more and more scarce, or 
becomes altogether extinct; and, in their loss, the 
world loses more than at the death of the last repre¬ 
sentative of a long line of imperial princes. Let us 
notice from histoiy a lew instances ol the gradual de¬ 
crease of some of our birds, that any who are doubt¬ 
ing may be convinced. Hear what Audubon testifies: 
“ When I first removed to Kentucky, the pinnated 
grouse were so plenty that they were held in no 
higher estimation as food than the most common 
flesh; and no hunter of Kentucky deigned to shoot 
them. In those days, during the winter, the grouse 
would enter the farm-yard, and feed with the poultry, 
alight on the houses, or walk in the very streets of 
the villages. I recollect having caught some in a 
stable at Henderson where they had followed some 
wild turkeys. In the course of the same winter, a 
friend of mine who was fond of practising rifle-shoot¬ 
ing, killed upwards of forty in one morning, but 
Chuck-wills Widow. 
which for centuries they have reared their young. 
He brings with him his gun; and, as long as there are 
any grouse or other game-birds in the neighborhood, 
the sharp report and murderous fire are his daily 
greeting to the wild creatures of the wood. He 
dams the streams, and turns them aside, and uses their 
power to destroy the forests on their banks. His 
snares are set in the valleys, and his traps on the hill¬ 
Uppcr fig. Yellow Warbler. Lower fig. Black and 
Yellow Warbler. 
Titmice. 
