The age-herald., 1898-05-09
GREAT DECREASE
 OF THE BIRD LIFE


 shown that in four-flfths of the area Of
 the United States, exclusive of Alaska, bird
 life is being annihilated. edible birds are
 rare and on the point of extinction, and
 plume birds are practically extinct These
 conclusions have been reached after exten-
 sive correspondence with naturalists, orni-
 biologists, game wardens, and others in a
 position to speak authoritatively, and a re- port embodying the results of the investi-
 gation will be published within few days
 in the annual report of the society. ". T. Hornaday, director of the New York zoo- logical park, in paper recently read be-
 fore the section of biology of the New York
 acamedy of sciences, referred to the so-
 cietys investigation, and used considerable
 of the data to be published in the report.
 -Four months ago." said MT. Hornaday, "a well-known naturalist was asked to
 what extent, in his opinion. bird life had
 decreased in the United States in the last fifteen years. To the surprise of those who
 made the query, he answered that 1t had
 not decreased. well-inforned naturalists
 were not deceived. however. though 1t was
 not denied that some species of birds may
 not have suffered diminuton. '"rhe correspondence of the New York geological society has shown that there Is an alarming scarcity of quadrupeds and
 large birds compared with the number that I existed eight years ago. At the beginning l of the investigation 1t was found that no | one had really instituted thorough in 1 quiry, and it was thus that the geological | society was led to investigate for itself on | an extensive scale. The extent of the dis l tricts to be covered by the investigators
 made it difficult task for any individual, | and scarcely less so for the society In it's
 work the following queries were prepared
 and distributed throughout the country:- | Are birds decreasing in number in your l locality?
 | About how many birds are there now in ] comparison with the number fifteen years l ago?
 What agency Cor class of mem has been l the most destructive to birds in your To- l cality?
 l What species of birds or quadrupeds are | becoming exeinct in your state? Answers were received from some 200 1 observers, including guides, collectors | sportsmen and taxidermsts from every | state and territory in the union. Ninety per cent. of the answers showed that they | had been compiled with great care, and l the closeness with which the estimates in different states agreed was surprising as | well as important in determining the scien- I tifc value of the data furnished. Eighty | per cent. of the correspondents declared | that the decrease in bird life was un1nlS- | takabe. With regard to the causes of de- | struction, the majority agreed in attribute | ing the blame to sportsmen first of all, to | boys who shoot second, and to the clearing l of timber for cities and towns as the third | and most important cause. Scarcely less | deadly to the birds were the feather hunt | CTS. Among other causes given by five or | more correspondents were market hunters, | shooters generally, egg collectors, the Eng l fish sparrow, Italians and others who eat 1 song birds, cheap firearms. drainage of marshes, hunting contests and bird co,lec- l tors, such as taxidermists and ornitholo- | g,sts.
 "In the absence of large game, many who I might be called real sportsmen look for l small game, and the man who kills the last l specimens of rare species of water fowl | in his locality not only finds pleasure in do- | ing so, but he is the envy of his fellow l sportsmen.
 | "In general classification, the game birds | include: Galinaceous birds, such as pheas- | ants. grouse, cartridges, qual, etc, 33 spe- | ces: pigeons and doves, 12 species; shore 1 birds. such as snipes and sand pipers, AZ | species; ducks and geese, 43 species; cranes, | herons ibises and other birds shot for | plumage, 10 species and rails, species. Be- | sides the game birds we have the gulls, | terms and other ocean-goers, birds of prey, l perching birds and woodpeckers.
 "At one time the game birds represented | about one-third the total bird life in the United States. Beyond all question 1t was once within the power of the United States to have maintained for the game birds one half the United States as a vast shooting
 preserve, capable of providing sportsmen and hunters with a continuous large sup ply.
 | 25 per cent. of the game birds that existed l fifteen years ago. Does anyone doubt that | without radical changes in the laws for | their preservation the next fifteen years l will not see the entire annihilation of the | IA species of game birds?
 "A new danger threatens many species l of birds. In Connecticut Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, on Sundays, hordes of ignorant Italians and some other | foreigners throng the woods with cheap guns and kill everything that wears feath- CTS except women. In California larks and some kinds of doves are now killed for food.
 Egg collecting has become an important factor in bird destruction in the northeast ern quarter of New York. as well as in
 many other localities. Bird nesting is a pleasant diversion, and the interests of science furnish for it a ready excuse. The value of most of these collections to science is small almost nothing, and the egg col l lecting must stop, at least for five years, if | the entire destruction of birds be not | speedy. The side hunts of sportsmen is another cause of prolific bird slaughter. An annual affair in Enosburg, Vt, is an ex- ample. In October, 1S96 at the annual side hunt there. 5s5 head of game were killed"
 MT. Hornaday then referred to the de- structon of birds by plume hunters. After
 having swept clean entire states and the
 entire Atlantic coast, he declared they
 were turning 10 Mexico. lower California,
 Central America and even the headwaters
 of the Amazon in their search for market
 able plumes.
 "In New York state,'' he continued, "the
 decrease in bird life in the past fifteen years
 has been 4S per cent. Florida has suffered
 the greatest loss nearly 90 per cent Me-
 braska has lost only 10 per cent, and were it not for the slaughter of game birds, bird life there would have been balanced for the period. In only one part of New York state was bird life reported as on the balance This was from taxidermist of Brockport, but answers from the districts immediately around showed a decided decrease In
 compiling its data the geological society