The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-05
VANISHING WILD THINGS.
Advancing Agriculture is Most Respon
 sible for Their Disappearance.

Advancing Agriculture is Most Respon-
 sible for Their Disappearance
 Sentimental reflections are not of much value to column of statistical figures, or to any dry problem of, sci ence, in the way of aiding our under- standing. It is better to be right than
 oratorical or poetical when we have to deal with facts, no matter how pathet- ic may be the significance of those facts. Even the unwelcome evidence that forces itself upon us year by year, tending to prove constant and rapid decrease in the number of our familiar and interesting American birds, should be studied without prejudice. We love the birds of orchard field, flood and wood but that is no good ground for neglecting any fact in considering the causes of their vanishing from the areas once teeming with them.
 The birds disappear, and in our griev- ous disappointment when they do not come back we hastily look about for somebody to lay the blame upon and so scold with due vigor Then it is time for sportsmen to dodge and vince. The man with the gun must be ready to, bear almost infinite abuse, or he must betake himself beyond reach of it. He is guilty of sundry depredations, sins against the law of universal bird protection, that he cannot deny; but he may well object to vicarious receptivi- ty when the day of punitive gift-offer- ing comes and somebody proposes mak
 ing him the recipient of every other transgressors share, as well as his own.
 The boy who shoots an air-gun, or a cheap fowlingpiece, or an india-rubber sling must take second place in the
 rank of martyrs. He kills a few little birds and frightens many. He is a nui-
 sance and should be purified but he gets far more blame than hfs actual
 misdemeanors deserve. Then comes l the collector of skins and feathers, the man who supplies museums, private | collections and milllners' shops. He is bad fellow he kills for money. Still | his slaughterings, numerous as they | certainly are seem insignificant when | compared with the enormous decrease 1 of bird life.
 l The reports once in while made out l by geological societies and other organ 1 izations in the interest of natural histo-
 ry study are valuable in a way, but one
 cannot read them without smelling | book-dust where the pure air of out
 doors ought to be, and feeling that they are based upon scattered and some what insignificant details, rather than
 upon the larger and more generally in- | f1uential facts of nature and life. This | is especially true as regards what has been done in the matter of accountin l for the remarkable disappearance of
 birds from large districts in their natu-
 ral domain. The gun-bearer, the l feather-hunter and the murderous | small boy with the sling are not the main agents of bird destruction; and wish to give a few items of evidence in | this connection.
 Game laws for the protection of deer cannot prevent the complete disap- pearance of those beautiful animals from country devoted to modern ag riculture. When all the woods are cut
 down, and all the plains are put to the 1 plough, there is no home left for the ! bear and the bison. Drain the bogs, | and what can the woodcock do for a | living? Reclaim all the wet lands, and