The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-02-20
GAME BIRD NOTES.
How tho brilliant Songstcrs Arc Killed
For Thelr Eeathers

How tho brilliant Songstcrs Arc Killed
For Their Feathers.
A group of field gunners sat the
other day in n gun store bewailiup the
scarcity of game when a newcomer
entered. 81 have just been around
among the taxidermists," he said, land
have been making inquiries about
tho song birds and the other birds cele-
bratcd moro for beauty of plumage
than their game qualities. These birds
were formerly to be found in large
mum bers hereabouts, but now we do
not see them. The taxidermists tell
me that they have been decimated
almost to determination, and it does
not now pay to hunt them. 1 was told
by the taNidcrmists that the feathered
skins of these innocent birds are now
bought in New York and Philadel-
phin-"
The guhners present did not agree
with the speaker. Said one: 1.-THE I'M
lawful shooting Of show birds is still
pursued by men and boys about Balti-
more. The bird-mountcrs may get
their skins from the east, but the goods
are first shipped from here"
Another said that the "cute" little
wren, a favorite warbler of the subur-
ban resident has become a rare bird
The English sparrow is probably his
worst enemy, but many of them grace
the tops of ladies' hats. The flashing
oriole is now highly priced when his
nest is hung near some country home.
In fact the songsters have become SO
scarce that many n woman with no
liking for firearms hns learned to
shoot, SO that English sparrows or
haws may be killed or driven away
when they modest the untnmed pets
The gunners said that while exer-
cising their dogs in the spring they had
frequently met men and boys with
bags of song birds and plumage
birds. Many of the species, they
said, were migratory, but the
pirates had no scruplcs against
killing native specimens. About the
middle of May is when the marauders
go forth with smooth-bore guns. They
shoot with small charges of powder
and dust shot. The victims are the fol-
lowing birds: The blue iay, with
beautiful crest and coat and somewhat
shrill voice; the wood thrush, little
musician; the blue bird, the first mes
senger of spring, who MARBLES n soft,
pretty song and flashes atong like bit
of blue sky; the brave bee martin, who
wears Il brilliant flower on his head
and is ready for a fight with an eagle
or hawk; the catbird, the rcd winged
blacllbird and the specl1led blaclbird,
the red-headcd woodpecker and the
small woodpccl1cr, neither of which
harms sound trees; the turtle dove, the
poets ideal; the goldfnch. whose MUIR
derers or trapper should be Gagged in
his stead; the lark. the swallow, the
ling6sher, the humming bird, the cedar
bird, sllylarll, Joe Wing.
When one OF the birds is killed the
gunner smooths the feathers and slips
him into paper funnel to preserve his
plumage unruffied. Sometime the gun
ner cuts the bird under the wing and
removes the flesh and scrapes the bones
before shipping. During the Balti-
more oriole celebration dead orioles
prepared in this way brought two dol
lars and fifty cents each. The birds
ordinarily range in value from fifty
cents to one dollar and fifty cents, or
nndressed from ten cents upward. The
height which the manufacture of arti-
| fetal birds from chicken feathers has
reached in Europe was thought to have
brought cessation of the slaughter of
the innocents, but the gunners say the
killing still continues in Maryland, the
demand being all the time great Bal
timore Sun.