7 
decimated in times of sleet and in extraordinarily cold weather within 
the range of their southern migrations. Thus our bluebirds were 
killed off in 1895, an d fearful havoc has been wrought in a number of 
our most valuable species in the Southern States during the past 
winter. 1 With these elements it is difficult to contend. To what 
extent man is responsible by reason of clearing out natural shelter and 
destroying natural food supplies it is impossible to say. Again, in 
times of great drouth in regions where our common species breed, 
both food and water may become so scarce that numbers of nestlings 
famish or starve. The birds then are loth to desert their nests to go 
to regions of plenty. If birds were tamed sufficiently to ccme to man 
as their friend in times of great need, as they do in rare cases now, 
and as they learned to come to Mrs. Brightwen, a little food and 
shelter might tide them over the hard time, and their service after¬ 
wards would repay the outlay a thousand fold. About the house and 
barn and shade trees, safe places of shelter, craifnies arranged on pur¬ 
pose, bird houses, due care being exercised to keep them clear of Eng¬ 
lish sparrows and place them out of the reach of cats, might save great 
numbers of birds yearly. 
Millions of fledglings, the country over, now go to feed vagabond 
cats. The remedy here is to rid the neighborhood of all such cats; and 
people who have cats that they value, for love of nature ought to see 
to it that they are provided with other food than young robins, orioles, 
thrushes and song sparrows. Much can be done by way of training 
cats to let the birds alone, and lastly they should be kept in as much 
as possible at times when young birds in the neighborhood are learn¬ 
ing to fly.' 2 
In recent years regions have been almost depopulated and whole 
species practically exterminated for purposes of millinery. The fault 
here does not rest, as is generally charged, with leaders of fashion or 
with our good lady friends who wear birds’ skins on their hats, but 
rather with public education and with the ornithologists themselves 
who know better uses for birds, and who ought to adequately instruct 
the public instead of scolding and preaching at it. 
A See the Auk for April, 1899, note by Arthur T. Wayne, p. 197. 
2 Prof. Forbush states that a cat is generally responsible for about fifty song 
birds in a year, and one cat to his knowledge destroyed six bird’s nests in a 
single day. 
