The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-01-28
THE PASSING OF THE BIRDS.
Their Slaughter Not a Matter OF
Sentiment.

More than thirty years ago the or
nithologists first began to fear the ulti-
mate extinction of the birds of Amer
Iica. Their fears found words, but their
warnings were laughed at because no
one could be brought to believe that
prolific creatures, harmless by nature,
could be in danger of total destruc-
ton. 1t is known now that the eXter-
mination which was feared thirty years
ago is soon to be an accomplished fact
unless means are taken at once to
check the slaughter of our useful
birds for purposes of personal adorn-
ment
There are at least fifty species of
feathered life once common in all parts
Of the United States east of the Mis-
sissippi river that are now seen only
rarely. The birds that are being eX-
terminated most rapidly are those
whose brilliant markings make them
a prey to the millinery trade, which
has men employed everywhere to kill
! the innocents. The number of birds
annually sacrificed to the vanity of
the women of America is placed as
1 high as eight millions by the testimony
Iof those who have investigated the
matter.
One of the worst features of the
slaughter of birds for womens hat or
naments is that those employed by
I the wholesale milliners choose nesting
! time as their most profitable season.
Then the adult birds are easily found
and readily approached. 1t is far from
exaggeration to say that one bird out
of every four worn as bit of feath-
cred finery represents a nestful of
! fiedglingS doomed to slow starvation
by the death of the parent.
A few years ago the wooded banks
of Lake Michigan north of Chicago
were the breeding grounds of hundreds
of scarlet tanagers. possibly the most
beautiful bird known to American or
anthology. Now they are so rare that
one must search the whole summer day
day to find single specimen The
red-winged blackbird is fast disap-
pearing. The Baltimore oriole, which
once made its nest at the end of the
dropping boughs of the elns in the
very heart of large eastern cities now
! is seen rarely save in remote country
districts, and there it is as shy as it
once was friendly. The numerous fam
lily known as the warblers, whose dini-
lnutive size would be a protection did not
their surprising beauty make them OBJ
jects of cupidity, are going the way OF
the others Many varieties of this
1 family nest north of the latitude OF
/ Chicago, but great numbers of the
little creatures are killed during the
vernal migration. The woodpeckers
are rapidly decreasing in numbers The
red-headed woodpeeker, whose poll was
dyed by Hiawatha. for timely service
was once a. common resident of Chi
Icago. 1t is seen still occasionally ir
lKenwood and other southern districts
but the hunter for the millinery mar.
ket and the small boy with his noise
less air gun are fast depicting its
franks.
The slaughter of birds is far more
than a matter of sentiment. 1t is q
Iquestion of economic point of view
Nearly all the birds of bright plumage
are inseetivorous. A statement of the
number of noxious insects that a single
songster will kill in day would ta1
the credulity could it not readily be
lproven.
There are about 300 varieties of Amer
lean birds. and of this number those
whose conduct forms no excuse fol
living can be counted on the fingers OF
one hand. Husbandmen have been too
apt to let a cherry bruised by the beal
of a robin outweigh the death by the
lsame beak of a hundred insects whose
killing made the ripe cherries possible
The tiny bird named by ornitholegist.
the creeper is called the sapsuckel
by farmers. because of its supposed
habits. So far from sapping the the lif,
of tree, this misunderstood little birC
picks from beneath the bark the insec
that is slowly working the trees de
struction. If the farmers will consul
their own interests and protect birt
life they will reap the benefit with thei
wheat and pluck it with their cher
ries The continuance of the birds il
our midst rests, however, mainly witt
woman If she will but permanent,
substitute ribbons and flowers fo
feathers as articles of bonnet decora
ton, the trilI of the song sparrow an,
the liquid note of the hermit thrust
| may he heard in our meadows an,
woods for the years to come.