The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-05-17
THE SLAUGHTER CT THE BIRDS.
Wanton and Selfish Destruction Makes the
Woods silent-Snrprising Statistics.

Wherever the European goes he Kills
birds. Michslet was among the first to
sound the alarm. Years rolled on and the
evil increased In every village, in spite
of the schoolmaster, the children go huuG-
lug birds nests. Wanto My and stupluiy
the pretty creatures of God are des9royeu'
Explorers go into foreign countries ID
hunt rare birds. In Algeria they Killed
so many storks that there are hardly any
more of them left. Storks are not alralo OF
the Arabs. but they know the european
on sight.
Formerly the red ibis swarmed in the
valley Of the Nile. Now they are nearly
all gone. In the GASES of the Sahara the
travellers killed so many pewits and
Movers that the natives became indig-
nant. But think Of the slaughter of birds
of passage in the south of Italy and of
France to supply the exigencies of fash.
ion! What hecatombs we make; we call
ourselves civilized!
In France there are about $50 species
of birds, 400 perhaps, if we include the
kind that frequent the marshes, the
rivers and the seas. In the spring it is
estimated that upon French territory
there are about 100 900, 0C0 couples
After the Matching it may be said that
there is an increase of a milliard birds.
The birds of prey, man and storms carry
away more than one-third of them.
There remains all told every year SIR
dlus of 20, COO 0OC of BIRDS But this sur
plus cannot last long. The poaohers and
the hunters destroy more than s00, UuO,-
000 The hawks, the weaSels, and tine
cats destroy about 500, 000 600 birds year
iy. The annual production IS rapidly
absorbed in this way, and the obstruction
still goes on. III. Andre Gooara q, recently
said in an excellent article: There are
in France alone $50, 900 hunting licenses.
The south has one-half of them, and
there they only shoot little birds, for real
game has become extinct in that region.
Marseilles counts 1000 hunters. 10
these legal hunters must be added the
landlords, the children who shoot in their
gardens, and, above all, the innumer-
able army of poachers that carry on
wholesale determination by means of
about thirty different prohibited engines.
The police are powerless against them
for their operations are carried on at
night"
Therefore the massacre brings about a
marked diminutiou in the number of our
winged beauties 1t is easy to see that, if
this thing goes on, in about forty years
there will be no more birds in France,
except sparrows in the towns, and pos
sibly little gamo in preserved lands
This conclusion does not seem to be ex.
aggerated by any means. Accordingly
to III. GODDARD, in Maine-et- Loire q
department favored by protection, ten
species of birds have disappeared in thirty
Years. just thirty years ago the Able
Vincelot spoke of certain species OF birds
becoming rare, and Millet twenty years
before that reported the same species quite
numerous.
Many aquatic birds such as the black
tern. the brebe, and the merganser have
also disappeared. Suppose three rigorous
winters should come consecutlyely in
twenty years we would lose all our re-
serves. Even at the present time there
are some birds so rare that they are
known principally through their repre-
sentatives in the ornithological show
cases of our museums. Sad little relics.
Everything depends upon the habits and
the fecundity of the species The spar
rows and the tom-tiG may resist for many
years TO come. The goldfinch and the
charming "dishwasher" (bergeronnette)
will soon fail to answer the roll call.
The thrush and the blackbird that sings
Sc chaTmingly are threatened far more
than the starlang, which is more wary
In general the migrating birds suffer
most, especially tho gallinaceous tribe,
because they emigrate toward the south.
The -~ebfooted birds take the opposite
cot and make their homes in the
northern regions. According to the OBJ
servatons Of M. Andre GODDARD, in GER
tain countries during the past ten years
the following species have almost entirely
disappeared: The swallow, the green
linnet, the "dishwasher, the wood
pecker, the blackbird, the bog rush. and
the yelIowhammer. In Provence there
are no more ravens, woodpeckers, or
pewits. They are all gone.
The hunters kill what onght to be
spared and spare what ought to be killed.
A hawk destroys each year about 120
birds. He Is never molested. On the
contrary, we help him along in his work
of destruction. Moreover, we cut down
the trees, which also causes the loss of
countless nests. In a word, we do every
ing that we can to bring about as
quickly rs possible the complete annihi-
lation of our winged fauna. Imagine the
woods. the parks, the gardens without
those little oharmers that we call birds9
Fancy the fields, the plains, and the
forests silent forever, after our so-called
civilization, by carelessness, Indifference
and greed, shall have blotted from the
book of nature one of its most interest
ing pages; indeed, 1 might say. one of
the most beautiful chapters in the crea-
tion Figaro.