The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-23

/ IL
81 ,S75 But this estimate by no means
represents the actual loss to the armer
and the taxpayer of the State. It is
within bounds to say that in the course
of a year every hawk and owl destroys
at least thousand mice or their equi-
valent in insects, and that each mouse or
its equivalent so destroyed would cause
| the farmer loss of two cents per an
mum. Therefore, emitting all reference
to the enormous increase in the number
of these noXious animals when Natures
means of holding them in check has been
removed, the lowest possible estimate
of the value to the farmer of each hawk
owl and weasel would be $50 year. or
$50 in year and half.
| Hence, in addition to the $40, 900 actually
| ly expended by the State in destroying
| 12S,511 of its benefactors, it has incurred
a loss to it's agricultural interests of at
| least $3,S57 $50, or a total loss of $3,947,
$50 in year and half, which is at the
| rate of 1851, APO per annum In other
words, the State has thrown away 81, 105
for every dollar saved! And even this
does not represent fairly the total loss,
for the slaughter of such a vast num-
Der Of predaceous birds and mammals is
almost certain to be followed by cor
responding enormous increase in the
numbers of mice and insects formerly
held in check by them, and it will take
many years to restore the balance thus
blindly destroyed through ignorance of
the economic relations of our common
birds and mammals
At the end of eighteen months this
law was repealed and a State ornithol-
ogist was appointed to study the rela-
tionship of birds to the agricultural in
terests of the State.
We, as a people, have failed to OBJ
serve carefully the feeding habits of our
feathered neighbors, and thus have not
learned their intrinsic value. For the
same reason, We have not been suffi-
cientoly interested in their preservation
to enact adequate laws for the protec-
ton of non-game birds. There have been
recorded in North Carolina 312 species
of birds. Only eight species are pro-
tected by the law of the State except in
the case of two counties. Public senti-
ment is so lax in many sections that these
laws are really little better than no laws
at ALL
There is scarcely a bird within the
limits of our State that is not regarded
as a legitimate mark for any gun. Num-
bers of men and boys in almost every
section of the country at times shoot
nom game birds Unfortunately. Thou
sands of chimney swifts. swallows. mar
tins and nighthawks (bullbats) are shot
every summer just to see them fall"
The small boy plumbers the nests, of
their eggs for his collection" ana does
so unrestrained by parental authority.
New York millinery dealers have en-
ployed hunters to traverse our coast line
and kill the sea birds in their breeding
places, until our coast is all but dest-
tute of the thousands OF beautiful flying
forms which once added to it so much
grace and beauty. Even now when the
sea birds which seem to nest along our
beaches have been so reduced in num-
bers that it would seem scarcely profit
able to hunt them. the millinery dealers
still send their gunners to our shores.
The citizens in many other States
have become alive to the situation and
there is no place on the Atlantic coast
of the United States north of Carolina
where the millinery hunter can murder
sea birds with impunity. Not alone has
Massachusetts, New York, Maryland,
Virginia and other Northern States
possed laws providing for the protection
of the sea birds, but bird lovers are see
ing that the strong arm of the law is
upheld by appointing wardens to guard
these sandy beaches on which the sea
fowls are wont to congregate to breed.
Thus prevented from carrying on their
work 10 M mil
liners turn with eager JOY to our coast,
knowing that here no warden awaits to
keep them from landing on our beach,
knowing that here no law frowns upon
their bloody work, and knowing that the
cience. which is ever stronge rthan either
its duty to the birds.
Plume hunters in spring traverse the
swamps of Eastern North Carolina
seeking out the breeding places of our
beautiful herons. These birds are killed
for their plumage. They are shot down
before the eyes of their helpless young,
which are left by hundreds in the nests
to perish of starvation.
Great numbers of young hooking birds
are taken by people who attempt to rear
tnem IN captivity Tor the ever ready
Northern market The problem with
which nature is confronted of adjusting
the habits of her wild creatures to meet
the changing environment occasioned by
the advancement of civiliza ton into the 1
wilderness is stern one. When, there
fore, man adds to her difficulty by caus-
ing the wholesale destruction of any par
ticular form of wild life, the rapid fall
ing off in numbers of the prosecuted
species necessarily follows. The alarm
ing decrease OF the numbers of birds in
the United States of recent years has
been the occasion of much anxiety in the
minds of all thoughtful people.
a scientist who undertook the task of
estimating the extent of this decrease
during the past fifteen vars in num-
Der of States, reports in part as follows:
Nebraska has lost ten per cent of her
birds, South Carolina 80 per cent, Missis-
sippi 81 per cent, Georgia 65 per cent
and Florida II per cent. In a total of
forty States he declares the average de-
crease of birds during the past decade
and aIhalf to be As per cent While his