The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-14
ALIEN ENEMIES OF. OUR
 NATIVE SONG BIRDS
By JAMES P. HEAToN

| (Exclusive service-The Survey Press Bu- reau.)
 | Signs on the small truck farms and
 wood lots near several of our great cities
 forbidding hunting on these premises are evidence of the slaughter of tiny song | birds for food by our newly arrived immi- | grants from southern Europe. Since noth- | ing except crows larger than robins, | black birds or thrushes, not even so much as an occasional rabbit, is ever to be | found in the open fields where many of | these warnings greet the passer-by they seem ludicrous and unnecessary additions
 to the customary NO Trespass" notice.
 Twenty years ago the farmer would have thought so, too. but trampled crops and l fields and the Sunday banging of shot
 guns have proved this notion mistaken. l The Italian, the Greek and the Bull | garian come from lands where it is even yet the custom of rich and poor to eat song birds and their eggs. In their old home there are few statutes to protect bird life and in consequence they show little respect for our game laws. They
 are skillful in evading these The vicin- ity of an Italian construction camp in country districts is often marked by si- lence. feathers and sometimes the re- mains of deer carcasses whether in season | or out
 A simple method and the only one at | first of these petty pot hunters Is to set | forth with a plain shotgun and fire away at the birds keeping an eye out for in- | terruption. Where strict license laws im- posing high license charges for hunters | or game wardens make this too risky, | they hunt in small groups. The men who carry the guns never have the game. A favorite arm now Is the Sunday gun" , specially devised for clandestine hunting. | If has a short rifle barrel and also shot
 gun barrel, This type of gun is small | enough to be hidden under an ordinary jacket The possessor of one of these | weapons can bring down a deer as well | as get q bag of birds. The Maxim si- lencer fortunately has not been used on shotguns for general sale, or 1t would be next to impossible to catch small bird hunters.
 In some states song birds are in most quarters so well safeguarded that they have bcome unwary and it Is easy for hunters to shoot large numbers of robins, fickers, jays, fnches, blue birds, spar rows, thrushes and warblers. An Italian
 arrested in Connecticut had concealed about F robins, three blue jays, three | fiickers, two hermit thrushes and pur- | pie finch. This hunter had no gun. If the gun bearer for whom he was carrying 1 the game had been caught and searched | he would prima facie have been innocent of having shot anything. In another l state the heads of a hundred robins were | found where Polish hunters had dressed | their bag, and in yet another a game | warden caught an Italian with 40 birds. mostly fiicl<ers.
 | Not content to get their bags through | at least a modicum of personal skill under | circumstances calculated to give the birds | a little warning, some of our, future citi- | izens resort to the use of the prescribed snare The most common are simple
 horse hair loops placed on the ground
 and baited for such thicket birds as | chewinl thrushes, thrashes, fox sparrows, l cat t-birds and other songsters that scratch
 among the leaves for grubs. Others hang
 these snares along the limbs of apple trees 1 to catch robins.
 | That our game laws should be thus de- fled by portion of the growing throng of immigrants, most of whom are law abiding, is not surprising. Shooting, linn ing, snaring and netting song birds have been practiced in southern Europe from times inrnemorial and old established habits are not quickly dropped. In Italy 1t is even yet the custom in places to go to the woods with little owl fast on perch on top of pole which Is placed by a thicket Small birds come to tease the
 owl and are shot, their places being taken | by others.
 | Several reasons combine to make the ] Italian at home unmindful of wholesale destruction of bird life. Northern Europe | is a great summer nesting ground for song birds. Italy and Sicily stretching | half way across the Mediterranean from Europe collect the southern migration in i the fall and catch 1t again the following | spring. Italy, therefore, has for short
 seasons at least three times as many birds
 as the other countries of southern Flu | rope The number is so great that but | few though the number is every year | more see any need for protection. Those
 killed are not missed. { In France. where | 1t was the custom to gather the eggs of song birds for food well as to shoot l them, a failure of the crops followed be- cause of the increase of insects. The multiplying of crop-destroying insects was admitted to be the direct result of the slaughter of song birds. In Italy the crops are safe because of the great in- crease in number of small lizards, which also feed on insects. These infest almost
 cry square yard of ground outside the
 towns.
 I To counteract old world customs we
 need not only more game wardens and a
 sharper-eyed public, but campaign oi
 II education directed at those most likely tc
 break the laws. A start has been made
 in some states by publishing the game
 laws in foreign languages. This is not
 enough. Copies of the laws printed ir
 Italian have been found in the pockets oi
 those caught by wardens The economic
 value of the birds should be more widely
 eNplained
 Our new citizen-to-be is not. however
 the only offender The amateur collector
 though less common perhaps than he was
 some years ago, is still to be reckoned as
 a serious enemy of bird life Even in ths
 I states with the strictest laws amateurs
 may still get special permits to kill birds
 and collect eggs and nests for scientific | purposes" though this duplicates the col.
 lections in the museums.
 The amateur does special harm through
 his passion for rare birds. Birds ofter
 stray from their range and explore frest
 regions. If they like their new surround I inss they settle there and return. again
 next season with their young and the
 mates which their offspring have made
 on the way. But if the pair or two that go out of bounds are caught as special
 prizes by the amateur collector. and they