 Chapter 7 of the Bird Study Book. The Bird Study Book by T. Gilbert Pearson. Chapter 7. Civilizations Effect on the Bird Supply. 1,200 kinds of wild birds have been positively identified in North America. About one-third of this number are called subspecies or climatic varieties. To illustrate the meaning of subspecies, may be stated that in Texas, the plumage of the bobwhite is lighter in color than the plumage of the typical eastern bobwhite, which was first described to science. Therefore, the Texas bird is known as a subspecies of the type. Distributed through North America are 19 subspecies of the eastern song sparrow. These vary from the typical bird by differences in size and shades of marking. In a similar way, there are 9 climatic variations of screech owls, 6 long-billed marsh wrens, and 14 horned larks. It is difficult to explain why this variation in color and size is so pronounced in some species and yet is totally absent in others of equally wide range. The morning dove breeds in many localities from the southern tier of Canadian provinces southward through the United States and Mexico, and yet everywhere over this vast range the birds are the same in size and color. Nowhere do the individuals exhibit any markings suggestive of climatic influences. Some birds are very rare and are admitted to the list of North American species because of the fact that during the years a few stragglers from other parts of the world have been found on our continent. Thus the scarlet ibis from South America and the kestrel and rook from Western Europe are known to come to our shores only as rare wanderers who had lost their way or were blown hither by storms. Eighty-five species of the birds now listed for North America are of this extra-limital class. Among those naturally inhabiting the country some are of course much more abundant than others. Thus everyone knows that bold eagles are comparatively rare and that robins and chipping sparrows exist by millions. The number of birds in different states. The number of kinds of birds found in any one state depends on the size of the state, its geographical situation, and the varieties of its climate as affected by the topography in reference to mountains, coastlines, etc. The number of bird students and the character of their field studies determine the extent to which the birds of a state have been cataloged and listed. Increase of garden and farm birds. The effect of civilization on the bird life of North America has been both pronounced and varied in character. Ask almost anyone over fifty years of age if there are as many birds about the country as there were when he was a boy and invariably he will answer no. This reply will be made not because all birds have decreased in numbers but because there has come a change in the man's ideas and viewpoint. In short the change is chiefly a psychological one. The gentleman doubtless does not see the birds as much as he did when he was a boy on a farm, or if he does they do not make the same impression on his mind. It is but another example of the human tendency to regard all things as better in the good old times. Let us turn then from such well-meant but inaccurate testimony and face the facts as they exist. I have no hesitation in saying that with many species of finches, warblers, thrushes and wrens their numbers in North America have greatly increased since the first coming of the white men to our shores. It is the fact well known to careful observers that the deep unbroken forest do not hold the abundance of bird life that is to be found in a country of farmlands interspersed with thickets and groves. Originally extensive regions of eastern North America were covered with forests where in birds that thrive in open countries could not find suitable habitation. As soon as the trees were cut the face of the country began to assume an aspect which greatly favored such species as the bobble-ink, metal-lark, quail, vest-prosperal, and others of the field-loving varieties. The open country brought them suitable places to nest, and agriculture increased their food supply. The settlers began killing off the wolves, wild cats, skunks, opossums, snakes, and many of the predatory hawks, thus reducing the numbers of natural enemies with which this class of birds has to contend. When the swamp is drained it means that the otter, the mink, and the wild duck must go, but the meadowland that takes the place of the swamp provides for an increased number of other species of wildlife. Effect of forest devastation Only in a comparatively few cases has bird life suffered from the destruction of forests. In parts of the Middle West the woodpeckers have no doubt decreased in numbers. There are places where one may travel for many miles without seeing a single grove in which these birds could live. Passenger pigeons, as late as 1870, were frequently seen in enormous flux. Their numbers during the periods of migration was one of the greatest ornithological wonders of the world. Now the birds are gone. What is supposed to have been the last one died in captivity in the zoological park of Cincinnati at 2 p.m. on the afternoon of September 1, 1914. Despite the generally accepted statement that these birds succumb to the guns, snares, and nets of hunters, there is a second cause which doubtless had its effect in hastening the disappearance of the species. The cutting away of vast forests where the birds were accustomed to gather and feed en masse greatly restricted their feeding range. They collected in enormous colonies for the purpose of rearing their young, and after the forests of the northern states were so largely destroyed the birds seemed to have been driven far up into Canada, quite beyond their usual breeding range. Here as Forberff suggests, the summer probably was not sufficiently long to enable them to rear their young successfully. The ivory-billed woodpecker, the largest member of the woodpecker family found in the United States, is now nearly extinct. There are some in the wilder regions of Florida and a few in the swamps of Upper Louisiana, but nowhere does the bird exist in numbers. It has been thought by some naturalists that the reduction of the forest areas was responsible for this bird's disappearance, but it is hard to believe that this fact alone was sufficient to affect them so seriously. For the birds live mainly in swamps, and in our southern states there are extensive lowland regions that remain practically untouched by the ax-man. For some reason, however, the birds have been unable to withstand the advance of civilization, and like the paraquette, the disappearance of which is almost equally difficult to explain, it will soon be numbered within the lengthening list of species that have passed away. The Commercializing of Birds With the exceptions noted above, the birds that have noticeably decreased in numbers in North America are those on whose heads a price has been set by the markets. Let a demand once arise for the bodies or the feathers of a species, and immediately a war is begun upon it that unless speedily checked spells disaster for the unfortunate bird. The Labrador Duck and Others A hundred years ago the Labrador Duck, known to Audubon as the Pied Duck, was abundant in the waters of the North Atlantic, and it was hunted and shot regularly in fall, winter, and spring along the coast of New England and New York. Their breeding grounds were chiefly on the islands and along the shores of Labrador, as well as on the islands and mainland about the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Anyone over forty years of age will remember how very popular feather beds used to be. In fact, there are those of us who know from experience that in many rural sections the deep feather bed is still regarded as the pièce de résistance of the careful householder's equipment. There was a time when the domestic poultry of New England did not furnish as great a supply of feathers as was desired. Furthermore, Eiderdown was recognized as the most desirable of all feathers for certain domestic uses. A hundred and fifty years ago, New England seafaring men frequently fitted out vessels and sailed to the Labrador coast in summer on feather voyages. The feathers sought were those of the Labrador Duck and the Eider. These adventurous bird pirates secured their booty either by killing the birds or taking the down from the nests. The commercializing of the Labrador Duck meant its undoing. The last one known to have been taken was killed by a hunter near Long Island, New York, in 1875. Forty-two of these birds only are preserved in the ornithological collections of the whole world. Another species which succumbed to the persistent persecution of mankind was the great Cormorant that at one time was extremely abundant in the northern Pacific and Bering Sea. They were killed for food by Indians, whalers, and others who visited the regions where the birds spent the summer. The great Cormorant has been extinct in those waters since the year 1850. Great awks were once numbered literally by millions in the North Atlantic. They were flightless and exceedingly fat. They were easily killed with clubs on the breeding rookeries and provided an acceptable meat supply for fishermen and other toilers of the sea. Also their feathers were sought. They were very common off Labrador and Newfoundland. Funk Island especially contained an enormous breeding colony. For years fishermen going to the banks in early summer depended on awks for their meat supply. The birds probably bred as far south as Massachusetts, where it is known a great many were killed by Indians during certain seasons of the year. However, it was the white man who brought ruin to this magnificent sea fowl, for the savage Indians were too provident to exterminate any species of bird or animal. The great awk was last seen in America between 1830 and 1840, and the final individual so far as there is any positive record was killed off Iceland in 1841. About 80 specimens of this bird and 70 eggs are preserved in the natural history collections of the world. The trumpeter swan and the whooping crane are nearly extinct today, constant shooting and the extensive settling of the prairies of the northwest have been the causes of their disappearance. Diminution of Other Species Of the fifty-five kinds of wild ducks, geese and swans commonly found in North America, there is probably not one as numerous today as it was a hundred or even fifty years ago. Why? The markets where their bodies commanded a price of so much per head have swallowed them up. The shotgun has also played havoc with the prairie chicken and the sage grouse. Of the former, possibly as many as one thousand, exist on the Heathen Reservation of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, a pitiful remnant of the eastern form of the species. Even in the prairie states, wide ranges of country that formerly knew them by tens of thousands, now know them no more. We might go farther and note also the rapidly decreasing numbers of the Sand Hill Crane and the Limpkin of Florida. They are being shot for food. The large white egret, the snowy egret and the rosy eight spoon bill are found in lessening numbers each year because they have been commercialized. There is a demand in the feather trade which can be met only by the use of their plumage, and as no profitable means has been devised for raising these birds in captivity, the few remaining wild ones must be sacrificed, for from the standpoint of the killers it is better that a few men should become enriched by bird slaughter than that many people should derive pleasure from the birds, which adds so much beauty and interest to the landscape. Change of Nesting Habits The nesting habits of some birds have been revolutionized by the coming of civilization to the American wilderness. The Swallow family provides three notable examples of this. The Cliff Swallow and the Barn Swallow that formerly built their nest on exposed cliffs now seek the shelter of barns and other outbuildings for this purpose. The open nest of the Barn Swallow is usually found on the joists of hay barns and large stables and not infrequently on similar supports of wide verandas. The Cliff Swallow builds its gorge-shaped mud nest under the eaves and hence is widely known as the eaves swallow. No rest of any kind in the form of a projecting beam is needed as the bird skillfully fastens the mud to the vertical side of the barn close up under the overhanging roof. In such a situation it is usually safe from all beating rains. The Cliff Swallow has exhibited wisdom to no mean extent in exchanging the more or less exposed rocky ledge for the safety of sheltering eaves. Swallows show a decided tendency to gather in colonies in the breeding season. Under the ease of a warehouse on the coast of Maine I once counted exactly one hundred nests of these birds, all of which appear to be inhabited. Examination of another building less than seventy feet away added thirty-seven occupied nests to the list. The nesting site of the Purple Martin has likewise been changed in a most radical fashion. Originally these birds built their nests of leaves, feathers and grass in hollow trees. Here no doubt they were often disturbed by weasels, squirrels, snakes, and other consumers of birds and their eggs. Some of the southern Indians hung gourds up on poles and the Martins learned to build their nests in them. This custom is still in vogue in the south, and thousands of Martin houses throughout the country are erected every year for the accommodation of these interesting birds. By their cheerful twitterings and their vigilance in driving from the neighborhood every hawk and crow that ventures near, they not only repay the slight effort made in their behalf, but endear themselves to the thrifty chicken-raising farmwives of the country. If gourds or boxes cannot be found, Martins will sometimes build about the eaves of buildings or similar places. They have learned that it is wise to nest near human habitations. At Plant City, Florida, one may find their nests in the large electric arc lights swinging in the streets, and at Clearwater, Florida, and in Bismarck, North Dakota, colonies nest under the projecting roofs of store buildings. I have always been interested in finding nests of birds, but I think no success in this line ever pleased me quite so much as the discovery of two pairs of purple Martins making their nests one day in May down on the edge of the everglade country in South Florida. There were no bird boxes or gourds for at least twenty or thirty miles around, so the birds had appropriated some old flicker nesting cavities in dead trees, that is, one pair of the birds had appropriated a disused hull, and the second pair was busy trying to carry nesting material into a flicker's nest from which the young birds had not yet departed. Here, then, were Martins preparing to carry on their domestic duties, just as they did back in the old primeval days. The discussion of this subject could not well be closed without mentioning the chimney swift, that now almost universally glues to the inner side of a chimney, or, more rarely, the inner wall of some building, the few little twigs that constitute its nest. It is only in the remotest parts of the country that these birds still resort to hollow trees for nesting purposes. There is, or was a few years ago, a hollow cypress tree standing on the edge of Big Lake in North Carolina which was used by a pair of chimney swifts, and it made one feel as if he were living in primitive times to see these little dark birds dart downward into a hollow tree miles and miles away from any friendly chimney. Some day I hope to revisit the region and find this natural nesting hollow still occupied by a pair of unmodernized swifts. CHAPTER VIII. THE TRAFFIC IN FEATHERS. The traffic in the feathers of American birds for the millinery trade began to develop strongly about 1880 and assumed its greatest proportions during the next ten years. The wholesale milliners whose business and pleasure it was to supply these ornaments for women's hats naturally turned for their supply first to those species of birds most easily procured. Agents were soon going about the country looking for men to kill birds for their feathers, and circulars and handbills offering attractive prices for feathers of various kinds were mailed broadcast. The first great onslaughts were made on the breeding colonies of seabirds along the Atlantic coast. On Long Island there were some very large communities of turns and these were quickly raided. The old birds were shot down and the unattended young necessarily were left to starve. Along the coast of Massachusetts the seabirds suffered a like fate. Maine with its innumerable outlying rocky islands was, as it is today, the chief nursery of the herring gulls and common turns of the North Atlantic. This fact was soon discovered, and thousands were slaughtered every summer, their wings cut off and their bodies left to rot among the nests on the rookeries. War on the Seaswallows During a period of seven years more than five hundred thousand turns or seaswallow skins were collected in spring and summer in the sounds of North and South Carolina. These figures I compiled from the records and accounts given to me by men who did the killing. Their method was to fit out small sailing vessels on which they could live comfortably and cruise for several weeks. In fact they were usually out during the entire three months of the nesting period. That was the time of year that offered best rewards for such work. For then the birds' feathers bore their brightest luster and the birds being assembled on their nesting grounds they could easily be shot in great numbers. After the birds were killed the custom was to skin them, wash off the bloodstains with benzyne and dry the feathers with plaster of Paris. Arsenic was used for curing and preserving the skins. Men in this business became very skillful and rapid in their work, some being able to prepare as many as one hundred skins in a day. Millenary agents from New York would sometimes take skinners with them and going to a favorable locality would employ local gunners to shoot the birds which they in turn would skin. In this way one New York woman with some assistance collected and brought back from Cobbs Island, Virginia, ten thousand skins of the least turn in a single season. In the swamps of Florida word was carried that the great millenary trade of the north was bidding high for the feathers of those plume birds which gave life and beauty even to its wildest regions. It was not long before the cypress fastnesses were echoing to the roar of breech loaders and cries of agony and piles of torn feathers became common sights and sounds even in the remotest steps of the Everglades. What mattered it if the semi-tropical birds of exquisite plumage were swept from existence if only the millenary trade might prosper? The milleners were not content to collect their prey only in obscure and little-known regions, for a chance was seen to commercialize the small birds of the forests and fields. Wurblers, thrushes, wrens, in fact all those small forms of dainty bird life which come about the home to cheer the hearts of men and women and gladden the eyes of little children commanded a price if done to death and their pitiful remains shipped to New York. Taxidermists who made a business of securing birds and preparing their skins found abundant opportunity to ply their trade. Never had the business of taxidermy been so profitable as in those days. For example, in the spring of 1882 some of the feather agents established themselves at points on the New Jersey coast and sent outward to residents of the region that they would buy the bodies of freshly killed birds of all kinds procurable. The various species of terns which were then abundant on the Jersey coast offered the best opportunity for profit, for not only were they found in vast numbers, but they were comparatively easy to shoot. Ten cents apiece was the price paid, and so lucrative a business did the shooting of these birds become that many Baymen gave up their usual occupation of sailing pleasure parties and became gunners. These men often earned as much as one hundred dollars a week for their skill with the shotgun. It is not surprising that at the end of the season a local observer reported, one cannot help noticing now the scarcity of terns on the New Jersey coast, and it is all owing to their merciless destruction. One might go further and give the sickening details of how the birds were swept from the mud flats about the mouth of the Mississippi, and the innumerable shell-lumps of the chandelures and the Bretton Island region, how the Great Lakes were bereft of their feathered life, and the swamps of the kinkaki were invaded, how the white pelicans, western grubbies, Caspian terns, and California gulls of the west, were butchered, and their skin bodies left in pyramids to fester in the sun. One might recount the stories of bluebirds and robins shot on the very lawns of peaceful, bird-loving citizens of our eastern states in order that the feathers might be spirited away to feed the insatiable appetite of the wholesale milliner dealers. Never have birds been worn in this country in such numbers as in those days. Ten or fifteen small-song-bird skins were often sewed on a single hat. What the Ladies' War In 1886 Dr. Frank M. Chapman walked through the shopping district of New York City on his way home two afternoons in succession and carefully observed the feather decorations on the hats of the women he chanced to meet. The result of his observation, as reported to Forest and Stream, shows that he found in common use as millinary trimming many highly esteemed birds as the following list, which he wrote down at the time, will serve to show, robins, thrushes, blue birds, tannagers, swallows, warblers, wax-wings, bobble-links, larks, orioles, doves, and woodpeckers. In all, the feathers of at least forty species were discernible. In commenting on his trips of inspection, Dr. Chapman wrote, It is evident that in proportion to the number of hats seen, the list of birds given is very small, for in most cases mutilation rendered identification impossible. Thus while one afternoon seven hundred hats were counted, and on them but twenty birds recognized, five hundred and forty-two were decorated with feathers of some kind. Of the one hundred and fifty-eight remaining, seventy-two were worn by young or middle-aged ladies, and eighty-six by ladies in mourning or elderly ladies. This was a period when people seemed to go mad on the subject of wearing birds and feathers. They were used for feminine adornment in almost every conceivable fashion. Here are two quotations from New York Daily papers of that time, only the names of the ladies are changed. Miss Jones looked extremely well, in white, with a whole nest of sparkling, scintillating birds in her hair, which would have puzzled an ornithologist to classify. And again, Mrs. Robert Smith had her gown of unreleaved black looped up with black birds, and a winged creature so dusky that it could have been intended for nothing but a crow, reposed among the curls and braids of her hair. Ah! Those were the Halcyon days of the feather trade. Now and then a voice cried out at the slaughter, or hands were raised at the sight of the horrible shambles, but there were no laws to prevent the killing, nor was there any strong public sentiment to demand its cessation, while on the other hand more riches yet lay in store for the hunter and the merchant. There were no laws whatever to protect these birds, nor was there for a time any man of force to start a crusade against the evil. The Story of the Egrets The most shameless plot on the history of America's treatment of the wild birds is in connection with the white egrets. It is from the backs of these birds that the egrets come so often seen on the hats of the fashionable. Years ago as a boy in Florida I first had an opportunity to observe the methods employed by the feather hunters in collecting these egrets which are the nuptial plumes of the bird and are to be found on birds only in the spring. As a rare treat I was permitted to accept the invitation extended by a squirrel hunter to accompany him to the nesting haunts of a colony of these birds. Away we went in the gray dawn of a summer morning through the pine barons of southern Florida until the heavy swamps of horse hammock were reached. I remember following with intense interest the description given by my companion of how these birds with magnificent snowy plumage would come flying in over the dark forest, high in air, and then vol-plane into the little pond, where in the heavily massed bushes their nests were thickly clustered. With vivid distinctness he imitated the cackling notes of the old birds as they settled on their nests and the shrill cries of the little ones as on unsteady legs they reached upward for their food. Keen indeed was the disappointment that awaited me. With great care we approached the spot and with caution worked our way to the very edge of the pond. For many minutes we waited, but no life was visible about the buttonwood bushes which held the nests. No old birds like fragments of fleecy clouds came floating in over the dark canopy of cypress trees. My companion, wise in the ways of hunters, as well as the habits of birds, suspected something wrong, and presently found nearby the body of an egret lying on the ground, its back from which the skin-bearing the fatal egrets had been torn raw and bloody. A little farther along we came to the remains of a second and then a third and still farther on a fourth. As we approached we were warned of the proximity of each gasly spectacle by the hideous buzzing of green flies swarming over the lifeless forms of the parent birds. At one place beneath a small palmetto bush we found the body of an egret which the hunters had overlooked. Falling to the ground sorely wounded it had escaped its enemies by crawling to this hiding place. Its appearance showed the suffering which it had endured. The ground was bare where in its death agonies it had beaten the earth with its wings. The feathers on its head and neck were raised and the bill was buried among the blood-clotted feathers of its breast. On the higher ground we discovered some straw and the embers of a campfire giving evidence of the recent presence of the plume hunters. Examination of the nest over the pond revealed numerous young, many of which were now past suffering. Others, however, were still alive and were faintly calling for food which the dead parents could never bring. Later inquiry developed the fact that the plumes taken from the backs of these parent birds were shipped to one of the large millinery houses in New York where in due time they were placed on the market as agrets and, of course, subsequently purchased and worn by fashionable women as well as by young and old women of moderate incomes who sacrificed much for this millinery luxury. There were at that time to be found in Florida many hundreds of colonies of these beautiful birds, but their feathers commanded a large price and offered a most tempting inducement for local hunters to shoot them. Many of the men of the region were poor and the rich harvests which awaited them was very inviting. At that time gunners received from seventy-five cents to one dollar and a quarter for the scalp of each bird which ordinarily contained forty or more plume feathers. These birds were not confined to Florida, but in the breeding season were to be found in swampy regions of the Atlantic coast as far north as New Jersey some being discovered carrying sticks for their nest on Long Island. Civilized nations today decry any method of warfare which results in the killing of women and children, but the story of the agrit trade deals with the slaughter of innocents by the slow process of starvation, a method which history shows has never been followed by even the most savage race of men dealing with their most hated enemies. This war of extermination which was carried forward unchecked for years could mean but one thing, namely the rapid disappearance of the egrets in the United States. As nesting birds they have disappeared from New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia and also those states of the Central Mississippi Valley where they were at one time to be found in great numbers. Amateur feather hunters. Quite aside from the professional millinery feather hunter there should be mentioned the criminal slaughter of birds which has been indulged in by individuals who have killed them for the uses of their own lady friends. I know one brown pelican colony which was visited by a tourist who shot four hundred of the big harmless, inoffensive creatures in order to get a small strip of skin on either side of the body. He explained to his boatmen who did the skinning for him that he was curious to see if these strips of skin with their feathers would not make an interesting coat for his wife. The birds killed were all caring for their young in the nest at the time he and his hirelings shot them. There was a few years ago in a Georgia city an attorney who accepted the Egret scalps of twenty-seven Egrets from a client who was unable to pay cash for a small service rendered. He told me he had much pleasure in distributing these among his lady friends. Another man went about the neighborhood hunting male Baltimore Orioles until he had shot twelve as he wanted his sisters to have six each for their Sunday hats. The rosy eight spoon-bill of the southern states was never extensively killed for the millinery trade and yet today it is rapidly approaching extinction. The feathers begin to fade in a short time and for this reason have little commercial value, but the amateur Northern tourist feather hunter has not known this or disregarded the fact and has been the cause of the depletion of the species in the United States. Almost everyone could cite instances similar to the above, for there are many people in the United States who are guilty of taking part in the destruction of birds for millinery purposes. In addition to the feathers of American birds already mentioned, the feathers of certain foreign species have been very much in demand. Paradise plumes. One of the most popular foreign feathers brought to this country is the paradise. There are at least nine species of paradise birds found in Ugini and surrounding regions that furnish this product. The males are adorned with long, curved, delicate feathers which are gorgeously colored. As in the case of all other wild birds, there is no way of getting the feathers except by killing the owners. Much of this is done by natives who shoot them down with little arrows blown through long, hollow reeds. The high price paid for these feathers has been the occasion of the almost total extinction of some of the species as indicated by the decreased number of feathers offered at the famous annual London Feather Sales. Travelers in the regions inhabited by the birds speak of the distressing effect of the continuous calls of the bereft females as they fly about in the forest during the mating season. As a high priced adornment, the paradise is the one rival of the famous agrit. Maribou. The maribou, which has been fashionable for a number of years past, comes principally from the Maribou stork of Africa. These white, fluffy, down-like feathers grow on the lower under part of the body of the Maribou stork. These birds are found in the more open parts of the country. Their food consists of such small forms of life as may readily be found in the savannas and marshes. To some extent they also feed like vultures on the remains of larger animals. Pheasants. The long tail feathers of pheasants have been much in demand by the millinery trade during the past ten years. Although several species contribute to the supply, the majority are from the Chinese pheasant or a similar hybrid descendant known as the English ring-necked pheasant. These feathers have been collected in Europe where the birds are extensively reared and shot on great game preserves. Fast numbers, however, have come from China. Oddly enough in that country the birds were originally little disturbed by the natives who seemed not to care for the meat. Then came the demand for feathers and the birds have since been killed for this purpose to an appalling extent. Numadai. This popular hat decoration suddenly appeared on our market in great numbers a few years ago. It is taken from the Manchurian-eared pheasant of northern China. Unless the demand for these feathers is overcome in some way there will undoubtedly come a day in the not distant future when the name of this bird must be added to the lengthening list of species that have been sacrificed to the greed of the shortsightedness of man. Gura. The fashionable and expensive hat decoration which passes under the trade name of Gura consists of the slender feathers usually four or five inches long with a greatly enlarged tip that grows out fan-like along a line down the center of the head and nape of certain large ground pigeons that inhabit New Guinea and adjacent islands. Perhaps the best-known species is the crowned pigeon. There is a special trade name for the feathers of almost every kind of bird known in the millinery business. There is the coke for the black cock, cross agrets for the little plumes of the snowy egret and eagle quills from the wings not only of eagles but of bustards, pelicans, albatrosses, bush turkeys and even turkey buzzards. The feathers of macaws and great numbers are used in the feather trade as well as hundreds of thousands of hummingbirds and other bright-colored birds of the tropics. Women's love for feathers. One of the most coveted and easily acquired feminine adornments has been feathers. At first these were probably taken almost wholly from birds killed for food, but later, when civilization became more complex and resourceful, culinary dealers searched the ends of the earth to supply the demands of discriminating women. The chief reason why it has been so difficult to induce educated and cultivated women of this age to give up the heartless practice of wearing feathers seems to be the fact that the desire and necessity for adornment developed through the centuries has become so strong as to be really an inherent part of their natures. It is doubtful, if many people realize, how strong and all-powerful this desire for conforming to fashion in the matter of dress sits enthroned in the hearts of tens of thousands of good women. There was a time when I thought that any woman with human instincts would give up the wearing of feathers at once upon being told of the barbaric cruelties involved in their acquisition. But I have learned to my amazement that such is not the case. Not long ago I received one of the shocks of my life. Somewhat over two years ago a young woman came to work in our office. I suppose she had never heard except casually of the great scourge of the millinery trade in feathers. Since that time, however, she has been in daily touch with all the important efforts made in this country and abroad to legislate the traffic out of existence, to guard from the plume hunters the colonies of egrets and other water birds, and to educate public sentiment to a proper appreciation of the importance of bird protection. She has typewritten a four hundred page book on birds and bird protection, has acknowledged the receipt of letters from the wardens telling of desperate rifle battles that they have had with poachers, and written letters to the widow of one of our agents shot to death while guarding a Florida bird rookery. In the heat of campaigns she has worked overtime and on holidays. I have never known a woman who labored more conscientiously or was apparently more interested in the work. Frequently her eyes would open wide and she would express resentment when reports reached the office of the atrocities perpetrated on wild birds by the heartless agents of the feather trade. Recently she married and left us. Last week she called at the office looking very beautiful and radiant. After a few moments' conversation she approached the subject which evidently lay close to her heart. Indicating a cluster of paradise egrets kept in the office for exhibition purposes she looked me straight in the face and in the most frank and guileless manner asked me to sell them to her for her new hat. The rest of the day I was of little service to the world. What was the good of all the long years of unceasing effort to induce women to stop wearing bird feathers if this was a fair example of results? Of all the women I knew there was no one who had been in a position to learn more of the facts regarding bird slaughter than this one. Yet it seems that it never entered her mind to make a personal application of the lesson she had learned. The education and restraint of the legislative enactments were all meant for other people. Ostrich feathers are desirable. How is this deep-seated desire and demand for feathers to be met? Domestic fowls will in part supply it, but for the finer ornaments we must turn to the ostrich, the only bird in the world which has become domesticated exclusively for its feather product. These birds were formerly found wild in Arabia, southwestern Persia and practically the whole of Africa. In diminishing numbers they are still to be met with in these regions, especially in the unsettled parts of Africa, north of the Orange River. From early times the plumes of these avian giants have been in demand for head decorations and for centuries the people of Asia and Africa killed the birds for this purpose. They were captured chiefly by means of pitfalls for a long-legged bird which in full flight can cover 25 feet at a stride is not easily overtaken even with the Arab's finest seeds. So far as there is any record young ostriches were first captured and enclosed with a view of rearing them for profit in the year 1857. This occurred in South Africa. During the years which have since elapsed the raising of ostriches and the exportation of their plumes has become one of the chief business enterprises of South Africa. Very naturally people in other parts of the world wish to engage in a similar enterprise when they saw with what success the undertaking was crowned in the home country of the ostrich. A few hundred fine breeding birds and a considerable number of eggs were purchased by adventurous spirits and exported with the result that ostrich farms soon sprang up in wildly separated localities over the earth. The lawmakers of Cape Colony looked at scans at these competitors and soon prohibited ostrich exportation. Before these drastic measures were taken however a sufficient number of birds had been removed to other countries to assure the future growth of the industry in various regions of the world. It was in 1882 that these birds were first brought to the United States for breeding purposes. Today there are ostrich farms at Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose California, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Jacksonville, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona and elsewhere. There is money to be made in the ostrich business for the wing and tail plumes of this bird are as popular today for human endowment as they were in the days of Shearkoff, the gorgeous lion of the mountain. Even low-grade feathers command a good price for use in the manufacture of boas, feather bands, trimming for doll's hats and other secondary purposes. When the time comes for plucking the feathers the ostriches are driven one at a time into a v-shaped corral just large enough to admit the bird's body and the workman. Here a long slender hood is slipped over his head and the wildest bird instantly becomes docile. Evidently he regards himself as effectively hidden and secure from all the terrors of earth. There is no pain whatever attached to the taking of ostrich feathers, for they are merely clipped from the bird by means of scissors. A month or two later when the stubs of the quills have become dry they are readily picked from the wings without injury to the new feathers. The ostrich industry is good and it is worthy of encouragement. No woman need fear that she is aiding in any way the destruction of birds by wearing ostrich plumes. There are many more of the birds in the world today than there were when their domestication first began and probably no wild african or asiatic ostriches are now shot or trapped for their plumes. The products seen in our stores all comes from the strong happy birds hatched and reared in captivity. Use of their feathers does not entail the sacrifice of life nor does it cause the slightest suffering to the ostrich. Taking plumes from an ostrich being no more painful to the bird than shearing is to a sheep and does not cause it half the alarm a sheep often exhibits at shearing time. The call for feather finery rings so loudly in the hearts of women that it will probably never cease to be heard and it is the ostrich the big ungainly yet graceful ostrich which must supply the demand for high-grade feathers of the future. End of chapter 8 Chapter 9 Birds' Study Book This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit librvox.org The Birds' Study Book by T. Gilbert Pearson Chapter 9 Bird Protective Laws & Their Enforcement How Laws Are Made Laws for the protection of wild birds and animals have been enacted in greater numbers in the the United States than in any other country in the world. In a government bulletin on American game protection, Dr. T. S. Palmer states that the earliest game laws were probably the hunting privileges granted in 1629 by the West India Company to persons planting colonies in the New Netherlands and the provisions granting the right of hunting in the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Ordinance of 1647. As soon as the United States government was formed in 1776, the various states began to make laws on the subject, and these have increased in numbers with the passing of years. For example, between the years 1901 to 1910, North Carolina alone passed 306 different game laws. As various forms of game birds or animals showed indications of decreasing in numbers, new laws were called into existence in an attempt to conserve the supply for the benefit of the people. Not infrequently, laws were passed offering bounties or otherwise encouraging the killing of wolves, pumas, and other predatory animals, or of birds regarded as injurious to growing crops or to poultry raising. State laws intended primarily for the protection of wildlife may be grouped as follows. One, naming the time of year when various kinds of game may be hunted, these hunting periods are called open seasons. Two, the prohibition of certain methods formally employed in taking game as, for example, netting, trapping, and shooting at night. Three, prohibiting or regulating the sale of game. By destroying the market, the incentive for such excessive killing is removed. Four, bag limit, that is, indicating the number of birds or animals that may be shot in a day. For example, in Louisiana, one may kill 25 ducks in a day, and in Arizona, one may shoot two male deer in a season. Five, providing protection at all seasons for useful birds not recognized as game species. Definition of game. Game animals as defined today include bears, coons, deer, mountain sheep, caribou, cougars, musk oxen, white goats, rabbits, squirrels, opossums, wolves, antelopes, and moose. Game birds include swans, geese, ducks, rails, coots, wood cocks, snipes, clovers, curlews, wild turkeys, grouse, pheasants, partridges, and quails. Sometimes other birds or animals have been regarded as game. Robins and morning doves, for example, are still shot in some of the southern states as game birds. The Audubon Law. Little was done in the way of securing laws for the benefit of song and insectivorous birds and birds of plumage until 1886, when the Bird Protection Committee of the American Ornithologist Union drafted a bill for this specific purpose. This bill, besides extending protection to all useful non-game birds, gave the first clear statutory terminology for defining game birds. It also provided for the issuing of permits for the collecting of wild birds and their eggs for scientific purposes. The states of New York and Massachusetts that year adopted the law. Arkansas followed eleven years later, but it was not until the Audubon Society workers took up the subject in 1909 that any special headway was made in getting states to pass this measure. Today it is on the statute books of all the states of the Union but eight, and is generally known as the Audubon Law. Game Law Enforcement. In all the states but Florida there are special state officers charged with enforcing the bird and game protective laws. Usually there is a Game Commission of three or more members whose duty it is to select an executive officer who in turn appoints game wardens throughout the state. These men in some cases are paid salaries and others they receive only a per diem wage or receive certain fees for convictions. License fees are usually required of hunters, and money thus collected form the basis of a fund used for paying the wardens and meeting the other expenses incident to the Game Law Enforcement. The Lacey Law. The federal government is taking a share of the responsibility in preserving the wildlife of the Union. On July 2, 1897, Congressman Lacey introduced in the house a bill to prohibit the export of big game from some of the western states. In 1909 amendments were made to the Lacey Law, one of which prohibited the shipment of birds or parts thereof from a state in which they had been illegally killed or from which it is illegal to ship them. The enforcement of this by federal officers has been most efficacious in breaking up a great system of smuggling quails, grouse, ducks and other game birds. Federal Migratory Bird Law. Probably the most important game law as yet enacted in the United States is the one known as the Federal Migratory Game Law or the McLean Law. A somewhat extended discussion of this important measure seems justifiable at this time. When in 1913 the first breath of autumn swept over tool sloths and reedy lakes of the northwest, the wild fowl and shorebirds of that vast region rose in clouds and by stages began to journey toward their winter quarters beneath southern skies. If the older birds that had often taken the same trip thought anything about the subject they must have been impressed when they crossed the border into the United States with the fact that changes had taken place in reference to shooting. It is true that in Minnesota, for instance, the firing of guns began in September as in other years, but those ducks that reached the Mississippi River below St. Paul found no one waiting to kill them. As they proceeded by occasional flights farther down the river there was still a marked absence of gunners. The same conditions prevailed all the way down the valley until the sunken grounds of Arkansas and Mississippi came into view. What did this mean? Here to fore at this season hunters had always lined the river. This had been the case ever since the oldest duck could remember. The Missouri River, too, was free from shooting throughout the greater part of its length, which was sufficient cause for many a grateful quack. What was the reason for this great change? Had the killing of wild fowl suddenly lost its attraction for those who had been accustomed to seek pleasure afield with gun and decoys? No, indeed, banished a thought, for it is written that so long as man shall live, wild duck shall grace his table and gratify his pallet. The remarkable changes which had so affected the fortunes of the wild fowl were due to the enactment of a United States law known as the Federal Migratory Game Law. Let us see something of this law and of what led to its establishment. History of Game Laws When the United States of America became a free and independent nation, the lawmakers in various common wills soon addressed themselves to the task of enacting protective measures for ensuring the continuance of the supply of desirable game birds and animals. But as the years went by and the game showed every indication of continuing to decrease despite the measures that had been adopted for their benefit, other and more stringent game laws were enacted. In the fullness of time there came into being in every state in the Union an extensive complex system of prohibitive measures regarding seasons for hunting, methods of killing, size of bag limit, restrictions on sale, and limiting the kinds of game that might be killed. Many states also went into the business of rearing in a condition of semi-captivity. Pheasants, grouse, Hungarian partridges, quail, ducks, and some other species of birds highly esteemed as food. The object of this being to restock covers that had been depleted of bird life by excessive shooting or to supply new attraction for field sports in regions where other game was limited. Theoretically, the methods adopted by the several states were sure to keep the numbers of game birds up to a point where a reasonable amount of sport might be engaged in by those of our citizens who enjoy the excitement and recreation of going afield with gun and dog. It could easily be proven on paper that by judiciously regulating the shooting and having this conform to the available game supply, every state could at one and the same time preserve the different species and furnish satisfactory shooting for its sportsmen. But in practice, the theory failed to work as expected. The gunners were on hand every fall in increasing numbers, but the birds continued to grow scarcer. In the vernacular of the sportsmen, birds that may legitimately be shot are divided for convenience into three groups. These, upland game birds, waterfowl, and shore birds. It is in reference to the fortunes of the waterfowl and shore birds that the greatest apprehension has been felt. Approximately all of the species concerned are of migratory habits. The open seasons when these may be hunted vary greatly in different states and all attempts to get anything like uniform laws in the various hunting territories have been attended with failure. It became clear in time that the most important action that could be taken to conserve these birds was to prohibit shooting during the spring migration when the birds were on their way to their northern breeding grounds. Some states adopted this measure and the results bore out the predictions of those who urged the passage of such laws. New York State, for example, tried the experiment and within two years thousands of black ducks were breeding where for a long time they had not been known to occur in summer. So the feeling became general among bird protectors that it would be an excellent thing if spring shooting of all migratory game birds should be stopped everywhere. But the legislatures of many states paid small heed to the little minority of their constituents who voiced such sentiments and the problem of how to bring about the desired results remained unsolved. The Theory of Shiris. In the year 1904 a United States congressman announced to the country that he had found the proper solution for settling once and for all the question of spring shooting and for putting to an end the ceaseless wrangling that continually went on in the various legislatures when the subject was brought up. This gentleman George Shiris, the third, planned to cut the Gordian knot by turning over to the federal government the entire subject of making laws regarding the killing of migratory game birds. In December that year he introduced a bill in congress covering his ideas on the subject. This radical proposition created merriment in certain legal circles. Was it not written in the statutes of nearly every state that the birds and game belong to the people of that state? Therefore what had the government to do with the subject? Furthermore, whether or not numerous court decisions upholding the authority of the states in their declarations of ownership of the birds and game, others saw in this move only another attempt toward increasing the power of the central government and depriving the states further of their inalienable rights. This remarkable document was discussed to some extent, but nothing was done. Four years later congressman John W. Weeks reintroduced the bill with slight modifications. Nothing came of this any more than of the bill that he started going in 1909. In 1911 he again brought forth this pet measure toward which congress had so often turned a cold shoulder. Senator George P. McClain set a similar bill afloat in the troubled waters of the Senate. Nothing happened, however, until the spring of 1912, when committee hearings were given on these bills in both branches of congress. Representatives of more than thirty organizations interested in conservation appeared and eloquently sought to impress the national lawmakers with the importance and desirability of the measure. Both bills were intended for the protection of migratory game birds only, but the representative of the National Association of Audubon Societies urged that the bills be extended to include all migratory insect-eating birds because of their value to agriculture. This suggestion was adopted, and after a stiff fight in congress the McClain bill became a law on March 4, 1913. This new federal statute did not in itself change any of the existing game laws, but it gave authority to certain functionaries to make such regulations as they deemed wise necessary and proper to extend better protection to all migratory game and insect-eating birds in the United States. The Secretary of Agriculture to whose department this unusual duty was assigned read the law thoughtfully, concluded that the task did not come within the bounds of his personal capabilities, and very wisely turned the whole matter over to a committee of three experts chosen from one of the department bureaus and known as the biological survey. The Work of the Committee This committee at once began the preparation of a series of regulations to give effect to the new statute, drawing extensively from the records stored in the survey offices and seasoning these with their own good judgment and knowledge of existing conditions. They brought out in a period of three months and nine days, or to be more precise, on June 23, 1913, a set of ten regulations which in many ways have revolutionized shooting in the United States. These were printed in pamphlet form and distributed widely, for before they could have the effect of laws it was necessary that they should be advertised for a period of at least three months in order to give all dissatisfied parties an opportunity to be heard. The whole idea of the government taking over the matter of protecting migratory birds, as well as the startling character of some of the regulations promulgated by the committee, was justly expected to bring forth either great shouts of approbation or a storm of disapproval, and possibly both sounds might be heard. As long experience has shown that it is necessary to have public opinion approve of a game law if it is to be effective, one can well understand that, following the mailing of the circular of these rules, these gentlemen of the committee stood with hand to brow and anxiously scanned the distant horizon. Nor did they have long to wait before critical rumblings began to be heard in many directions, for it is always hard for men to give up privileges which they have once enjoyed. In fact, as the committee waited, the sky began rapidly to fill with interrogation points, for it has ever been the case that the dissatisfied ones of earth are louder in their objections than are the satisfied ones in their commendations. As a matter of fact, the regulations on the whole were remarkable for their clearness, directness, and fairness. They came nearer being formed for the benefit of the birds instead of for the pleasure and convenience of the hunters than any general far-reaching bird protective measure which has been enacted in this country. For the purpose of the regulations, migratory game birds were defined as ducks, geese, swans, rails, coots, pigeons, cranes, and shore birds which included plover, snipe, woodcock, and sandpipers. Migratory insectivorous birds were enumerated as thrushes, orioles, larks, swallows, wrens, woodpeckers, and all other perching birds that feed entirely or chiefly on insects. Having thus conveniently classified migratory birds into two easily comprehensible and distinguishable groups, the way was open to deal with them separately and distinctively. Therefore, after declaring it to be illegal to kill any bird of either class between sunset and sunrise, the regulations went on to state that insect-eating birds shall not be killed in any place or in any manner even in the daytime. Among other things, this provision by one stroke completed the campaign which the Audubon Society had been waging for long years on behalf of the Robin. In Maryland, North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee, the Robin pot-pie-loving inhabitants must in future content themselves with such game-birds as quail, grouse, wild turkey, and ducks. The life of Sir Robin Redbreast has now been declared to be sacred everywhere. He and his mate are to dwell beneath the protection of the strong arm of the United States government. Another feature of the Audubon work was also completed by this section of new regulations. This is the safeguarding of all song and insect-eating birds in the states of Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Nebraska, Kansas, and New Mexico, constituting the group of states whose legislatures had thus far withstood the importunities of the Audubon workers to extend protection to such birds. Regulation number four provided for an absolute closed hunting season on 62 species of water birds until September 1918. The above includes what we might call some of the minor regulations proposed by the Biological Survey Committee, then comes the big regulation, the one which was of absorbing interest to every member of the vast army of five million hunters in the United States. This is the regulation which divides the country into zones and prescribes the shooting seasons in each. Touching on this point, the government experts already mentioned gave out this statement by way of explanation. Government explanations. More than 50 separate seasons for migratory birds were provided under Statutes in Force in 1912. This multiplicity of regulations of zones to suit special localities has apparently had anything but a beneficial effect on the abundance of game. The effort to provide special seasons for each kind of game in each locality merely makes a chain of open seasons for migratory birds and allows the continued destruction of such birds from the beginning of the first season to the close of the last. It is believed that better results will follow the adoption of the fewest possible number of zones, and so regulating the seasons in each as to include the time when each species is in the best condition or at the maximum of abundance during the autumn. For this reason, the country has been divided into two zones, as nearly equal as possible, one to include the states in which migratory game birds breed, or wood breed if given reasonable protection, and the other the states in which comparatively few species breed, but in which many winter. Within these zones, the seasons are fixed for the principal natural groups, waterfowl, rails, shore birds, and woodcock. In no case does the zone boundary cross a state line, and except in very rare cases, the seasons are uniform throughout the states. With few changes, the regulations were finally adopted, wherever the federal law conflicted with the state law, the former was regarded as supreme, and to make things more generally uniform, the states have since been changing their laws to conform to the government regulations. After being tried out for three years, these rules recently were modified by making five shooting zones and altering certain other provisions. These last regulations, which became effective on August 21st, 1916, today stand as the law of the land affecting migratory birds. To the United States biological survey was entrusted the task of enforcing the law by means of game wardens and other officials. That is, the survey was to collect the evidence in cases of violations, and the prosecutions were to be conducted by the Department of Justice. To enable these officials to execute the law, Congress has appropriated $50,000 annually, which is just about one tenth the minimum amount needed for the purpose. This paltry sum has been expended as judiciously as possible, with marked results for good. Trouble, however, soon developed in the courts. One autumn day, RVC Schwaver went to hunting on Big Lake, Arkansas, and finding no ducks handy, he shot a coot, which was against the law. When the case came up in the federal court of eastern Arkansas, the judge who presided declared that the federal law under which the defendant was being tried was unconstitutional, and wrote a lengthy decision giving his reasons for holding this view. Within the next two months, two other federal courts rendered similar decisions. At this point, the Department of Justice decided to bring no further cases to trial until the United States Supreme Court could pass on the constitutionality of the law, the Arkansas case having already been brought before this tribunal. At this writing, the decision has not been rendered. Only bird treaty in the world. Early in the history of the operations of this law, the possibilities of an adverse decision by the Supreme Court were considered by those interested in the measure, and a plan was found whereby all might not be lost if such a catastrophe should occur. The first movement in this new direction was made by Elihu Root on January 14, 1913, when he introduced in the Senate a resolution requesting the President to propose to the other governments the negotiation of a convention for the protection of birds. A proposed bird treaty between this country and Canada was then drawn up, and after much effort was brought to a successful issue and was finally ratified by Congress on September 29, 1916. This treaty broadly covers the provisions of the migratory bird law in this country, so if the Supreme Court declares the latter to be invalid, the government still stands committed to the principles of migratory bird protection by virtue of the treaty. So the long fight to stop spring shooting and provide short uniform closed seasons for shooting shorebirds and wild fowl is drawing to a glorious conclusion. Today, in the history of wildlife conservation, we have before us the unusual spectacle of the United States government taking a serious hand in a problem which had been found to be too difficult a solution by the different states working separately. Many of us believe this predicts a brighter day for the perpetuation of the wildlife of our country. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of the Bird Study Book This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Bird Study Book by T. Gilbert Pearson Chapter 10 Bird Reservations The creation of reservations where wild birds can be protected at all times is a modern idea brought prominently to public attention by the efforts of the Audubon Society. The first interest that the United States government manifested in the subject was about thirteen years ago. On May 29, 1901, the legislature of Florida was induced to enact a statute making it a misdemeanor to kill any non-gain birds of the state with the exception of the crow and a few other species regarded by lawmakers as being injurious to man's interests. First Federal Bird Reservation Shortly afterward, the Audubon Society friends employed a man to protect from the raids of tourists and feather hunters, a large colony of brown pelicans that used for nesting purposes a small, muddy mangrove-covered island in Indian River on the Atlantic coast. Soon murmurings began to be heard. Pelicans eat fish and should not be protected, declared one Floridian. We need pelican quills to sell to the feather-dealers chimed in another with a keen eye to the main chance. There was talk of repealing the law at the next session of the legislature, and the hearts of the Audubon workers were troubled. At first they thought of buying the island so as to be in a position to protect its feathered inhabitants by preventing trespass. However, it proved to be unsurveyed government land and the idea was suggested of getting the government to make a reservation for the protection of the birds. The matter was submitted to President Roosevelt who no sooner ascertained the facts that the land was not suited for agricultural purposes and that the Audubon society would guard it then with characteristic directness he issued the following remarkable edict. It is hereby ordered that Pelican Island in Indian River is reserved and set apart for the use of the Department of Agriculture as a preserved and breeding ground for native birds. The gist of this order bearing the authorization of the Secretary of Agriculture was quickly painted on a large sign and placed on the island where all who sailed near might read. Imagine the chagrin of the Audubon workers upon learning from their warden that when the Pelicans returned that season to occupy the island as before they took one look at this declaration of the president and immediately departed, one in all, to a neighboring island entirely outside of the reservation. Signs less alarming in size were substituted and the Pelicans, their feelings appeased, condescended to return and have since dwelt peacefully under the protecting care of the government. Congressional sanction. In view of the fact that some persons contended that the president had overstepped his authority in making a bird reservation, a law was drafted and passed by Congress specifically giving protection to birds on lands set apart as national bird reservations. The legal difficulties thus removed, the way lay open for the creation of other bird reservations, and the Audubon society seized the opportunity. Explorations were started to locate other government territories containing important colonies of water birds. This work was quickly extended over many parts of the United States. Hunters of eggs and plumes were busy plying their trade wherever birds were known to assemble in great numbers, and the work had to be hurried if the birds were to be saved. Mr. Frank M. Miller of New Orleans reported a case in which 5,000 eggs had been broken on one Louisiana island inhabited by seabirds in order that fresh eggs might subsequently be gathered into the boats, waiting at anchor offshore. No wonder that friends of water birds were profoundly concerned about their future welfare, and hailed with delight Mr. Roosevelt's quick action. Mr. William Dutcher, President of the National Association of Audubon Societies, was so much pleased with the results achieved by the Federal Reservation work of 1905 that he declared in his annual report that the existence of the association was justified if it had done nothing more than secure federal bird reservations and had helped to guard them during the breeding season. That year President Roosevelt established four more bird refuges. One of these, Stump Lake in North Dakota, became an important nursery for gulls, terns, ducks, and cormorants in summer, and a safe harbor for wildfowl during the spring and fall migrations. Huron Island and Siskiwe in Lake Superior, the homes of innumerable herring gulls, were made perpetual bird sanctuaries, and Audubon Wardens took up their lonely watch to guard them against all comers. Florida Reservations At the mouth of Tampa Bay, Florida, is a ninety-acre island, Passage Key. Here, the wild bird life of the Gulf Coast has swarmed in the mating season, since white man first knew the country. Thousands of herons of various species, as well as terns and shorebirds, make this their home. Dainty little ground doves flutter in and out among the cactus on the sheltered sides of the sand dunes. Clovers and sandpipers chase each other along the beaches, and the burrowing owls hear hide in their hulls by night and roam over the island by day. When this place was described to President Roosevelt, he immediately declared that the birds must not be killed there without the consent of the Secretary of Agriculture. With one stroke of his pen, he brought this desirable condition into existence, and Mrs. Asa Pillsbury was duly appointed to protect the island. She is one of the few women bird wardens in America. These things happened in the early days of government work for the protection of water birds. The Audubon Society had found a new field for endeavor, highly prolific, in results. With the limited means at its command the work of ornithological exploration was carried forward. Every island, mud flat, and sandbar along the coast of the Mexican Gulf, from Texas to Key West, was visited by trained ornithologists who reported their findings to the New York office. These were forwarded to Washington for the approval of Dr. T. S. Palmer of the Biological Survey and Frank Bond of the General Land Office, where executive orders were prepared for the President's signature. The Bretton Island Reservation off the coast of Louisiana, including scores of islands and bars, was established in 1904. Six additional reservations were soon created along the West Coast of Florida, thus extending a perpetual guardianship over the colonies of sea and coastwise birds in that territory, the pitiful remnants of vast rookeries despoiled to add to the profits of the millenary trade. The work was early started in the West, resulting in the Merrio Lake and Claymoth Lake Reservations of Oregon. The latter is today the summer home of myriads of ducks, geese, grubbies, white pelicans, and other wild waterfowl, and never a week passes that the waters of the lake are not fretted with the prow of the Audubon patrol boat, as the watchful warden extends his vigil over the feathered words of our government. Federal bird reservations have been formed not only of lakes with greedy margins and lonely islands in the sea, they have been made to include numerous government reservoirs built in the arid regions of the West. Distant reservations Once set in motion, this movement for Federal bird reservations soon swept beyond the boundaries of the United States. One was established in Puerto Rico, and several others among the islands of Alaska, on whose rocky cliffs may be seen today clouds of puffins, oaks, and guillemons, queer creatures that stand upright like a man, crowding and shouldering each other about on the ledges which overlook the dark waters of the Bering Sea. One reservation in Alaska covers much of the lower delta of the Yukon, including the great tundra country south of the river, embracing within its borders a territory greater than the state of Connecticut. From the standpoint of preserving rare species of birds, this is doubtless one of the most important reservations which has come into existence. It is here that many of the wildfowl which frequent the California coast in winter find a summer refuge safe alike from the bullet of the white man and the arrow of the Indian. Here it is that the lordly emperor Goose is probably making his last stand on the American continent against the aggressions of the destructive white race. Away out in the western group of the Hawaiian archipelago are located some of the world's most famous colonies of birds. From remote regions of the Pacific, seabirds journey hither when the instinct formating is strong upon them. Here come lovebirds or white terns and albatrosses, great winged wonders whose home is on the rolling deep. The number seems almost beyond belief to men and women unfamiliar with bird life in congested colonies. On February 3, 1909, these islands and reefs were included in an executive order whereby the Hawaiian island reservation was brought into existence. This is the largest of all our government bird reserves. It extends through more than five degrees of longitude. At intervals in the past these islands had been visited by vessels engaged in the feather trade, and although no funds were available for establishing a warden patrol among them, it was fondly hoped that the notice to the world that these birds were now wards of the United States would be sufficient to ensure their safety. A rude shock was felt therefore when late that year a rumor reached Washington that a Japanese poaching vessel had been sighted heading for these waters. The revenue cutter, Thetis then lying at Honolulu, was at once ordered on a cruise to the bird islands. Early in 1910 the vessel returned bringing with her 23 Japanese feather hunters who had been captured at their work of destruction. In the hold of the vessel were stored 259,000 pairs of wings, two and a half tons of baled feathers, and several large cases and boxes of stuffed birds. Had the Japanese escaped with their booty they would have realized over $100,000 for their plunder. This island was again raided by feather collectors in the spring of 1915. President Taft, a bird protectionist. President Taft continued the policy of creating bird reservations begun by Mr. Roosevelt and a number were established during his administration. President Wilson likewise is a warm advocate of bird protection. One of the many reservations he has created is the Panama Canal Zone which is in charge of the Panama Canal Commission. With this exception and that of the Privilof Reservation which is in charge of the Bureau of Fisheries, all government bird reservations are under the care of the Department of Agriculture and their administration is directed by the Bureau of the Biological Survey. The National Association of Audubon Societies still contributes in a modest way to the financial support of some of the wardens. Below is given a full list of the Federal Bird Reservations created up to January 1917. Pelican Island, Florida Bretton Island, Louisiana Stump Lake, North Dakota Huron Islands, Michigan Sisquit Islands, Michigan Passage Key, Florida Indian Key, Florida Turn Islands, Louisiana Shell Keys, Louisiana Three Arch Rocks, Oregon Flattery Rocks, Washington Quilliute Needles, Washington Copolis Rock, Washington East Timberlear, Louisiana Mosquito Inlet, Florida Tortugas Keys, Florida Key West, Florida Clameth Lake, Oregon Lake Merrier, Oregon Chase Lake, North Dakota Pine Island, Florida Palma Sola, Florida Alaka Pass, Florida Island Bay, Florida La Catrine, Wyoming Hawaiian Islands, Hawaii Salt River, Arizona East Park, California Deer Flat, Idaho Willow Creek, Montana Carlsbad, New Mexico Rio Grande, New Mexico Cold Springs, Oregon Vell Force, South Dakota Strawberry Valley, Utah Keechalus, Washington Katchus, Washington Keelum, Washington Cleum, Washington Bumping Lake, Washington Concanooley, Washington Pathfinder, Wyoming Shoshan, Wyoming Minidoka, Idaho Bering Sea, Alaska Tuxedney, Alaska St. Lazaria, Alaska Yukon Delta, Alaska Kulabra, Puerto Rico Farrellone, California Probaloft, Alaska Bogasloff, Alaska Clearlake, California Borrester Island, Alaska Hazy Islands, Alaska Nia Braira, Nebraska Green Bay, Wisconsin Chamezo Island, Alaska Pishkin, Montana Dessachio Island, Puerto Rico Gravel Island, Wisconsin Aleutian Islands, Alaska Walker Lake, Arkansas Audubon Society Reservations It may be noted from this list that there are no government bird reservations in the original 13 colonies. The reason is that there are no government wastelands containing bird colonies in these states. To protect the colony breeding birds found there other means were necessary. The Audubon Society employs annually about 60 agents to guard in summer the more important groups of water birds along the Atlantic coast and about some of the lakes of the interior. Water bird colonies are usually situated on islands where the birds are comparatively free from the attacks of natural enemies, hence the question of guarding them resolves itself mainly into the question of keeping people from disturbing the birds during the late spring and summer months. Painted signs will not do this. Men hired for the purpose constitute the only adequate means. Some of the protected islands have been bought or leased by the Audubon Society but in many cases they are still under private ownership and the privilege of placing a guard had to be obtained as a favor from the owner. Probably half a million breeding water birds now find protection in the Audubon Reservations. On the islands off the main coasts the principal birds safeguarded by this means are the Herringull, Arctic Turn, Wilson's Turn, Leeches Petrol, Black Guillemont, and Puffin. There are protected colonies of turns on Long Island of turns and laughing gulls on the New Jersey coast of black skimmers and of various turns in Virginia and North Carolina. One of the great struggles the Audubon Society has ever had has been to raise funds every year for the protection of the colonies of Egrets and Ibis in the South Atlantic States. The story of this fight is longer than can be told in one short chapter. The protected colonies are located mainly in the low swampy regions of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. I have been in many of these rookeries and know that the warden who undertakes to guard one of them takes his life in his hand. Perhaps a description of one will answer more or less for the 20 other Herring colonies the Society has under its care. The Corkscrew Rookery Some time ago I visited the warden of this reservation located in the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp 32 miles south of Fort Myers, Florida. Arriving at the colony late in the evening, after having traveled 30 miles without seeing a human being or a human habitation, we killed a rattlesnake and proceeded to make camp. The shouting of a pair of sandhill cranes awakened us at daylight and to quote Green, the warden, the sun was about two hands high when we started into the rookery. We crossed a glade 200 yards wide and then entered the swamp. Progress was slow for the footing was uncertain and the tall sawgrass cut our wrists and faces. There are many things unspeakably stimulating about a journey into such a tropical swamp. You work your way through thick, tangled gross of water plants and hanging vines. You clamor over huge fallen logs damp with rank vegetation and wade through a maze of cypress knees. Unwittingly you are sure to gather on your clothing a colony of ravenous ticks from some swaying branch. Red bugs bent on mischiefs scramble up on you by the score and bury themselves in your skin. While a cloud of mosquitoes waves behind you like a veil in the somber shadows through which you move you have a feeling that there are many unseen things that crawl and glide and fly and a creepy feeling about the edges of your scalp becomes a familiar sensation. Once we came upon the trail of a bear and found the going easier when we waited on hands and knees through the opening its body had made. In the more open places the water was completely covered with floating plants that green called wild lettuce. These appeared to be uniform in size and presented an absolute level surface except in a few places where slight elevations indicated the presence of inquisitive alligators whose gray eyes we knew were watching our movements through the lettuce leaves. Although the swamp was unpleasant underfoot we had but to raise our eyes to behold a world of beauty. The purple blossoms of air plants and the delicate petals of other orchids greeted us everywhere. From the bowels overhead long streamers of gray Spanish moss waved and beckoned in the breeze. Still higher on gaunt branches of giant cypresses a hundred feet above our heads great grotesque wood ibises were standing on their nests or taking flight for their feeding grounds a dozen miles southward. We were now fairly in the midst of an immense bird city and some of the inhabitants were veritable giants in the bird world. The body of a wood ibis is about the size of a turkey hen. Its long bare neck terminates in a most remarkable fashion for the top of the head is not only innocent of feathers but also destitute of skin. Flint heads the people call the bird. Its bill is nearly ten inches long slightly curved and very massive woe to the unlucky fish or luckless rat upon whom a blow falls from the flint heads heavy beak. There were probably one hundred thousand of these birds inhabiting corkscrew at the time of my visit. There were also large colonies of the smaller white ibis and several varieties of heron. Eight of the almost extinct rosy eight spoon bills wheeled into view above the swamp but quickly passed from sight. The most interesting birds those concerning which the Audubon Society is most solicitous are the white egrets. These snowy white models of grace and beauty have been persecuted for their plumes almost to the point of extermination and here is situated the largest assemblage of them left in Florida. These long whites are never off my mind for a minute, said the warden, as we passed to watch some fly over. Two men came to my camp last week who thought I didn't know them but I did. They were old-time plume hunters. They said they were hunting cattle but I knew better. They were after egrets and came to see if I was on guard. I told them if they saw anyone after plumes to pass the word that I would shoot on sight any man with a gun who attempted to enter the corkscrew. I would do it too, he added, as he tapped the barrel of his Winchester. It is terrible to hear the young birds calling for food after the old ones have been killed to get the feathers for rich women to wear. I'm not going to have my birds sacrifice that way. The teeming thousands of birds in this rookery feed their young to a more or less extent on fish and from the nests many fragments fall into the mud and water below. In the wise economy of nature few objects of real value are suffered to go to waste. Resting on the water plants coiled on logs or festooned in low bushes numerous cottonmouth water moccasins lie in wait. Silently and motionless they watch and listen now and then raising their heads when a light splash tells them of the approach of some heedless frog or of the falling of some dead fish like mana from the nests above. May is the dry season and the low water of the swamp accounted in a measure for the unusual number of snakes to be seen. Exercising a fair amount of caution I slew that morning fourteen poisonous reptiles one of which measured more than five feet in length and had a girth I was just able to encompass with both hands. Wardens shot by plume hunters. This is a region where the Audubon warden must constantly keep his lonely watch for should he leave even for a short time there would be danger of the colony being raided and the protective work of many seasons wiped out. A successful shooting trip of plume hunters to the corkscrew might well net the gunners as much as five thousand dollars and in a country where money is scarce that would mean a magnificent fortune. The warden is fully alive to this fact and is ever on the alert. Many of the plume hunters are desperate men and he never knows what moment he may need to grasp his rifle to defend his life in the shadows of the big cypress where alligators and vultures would make short shrift of his remains. He remembers as he goes his rounds among the birds day by day or lies in his tent at night that a little way to the south on a lonely sand-key lies buried Guy Bradley who was done to death by plume hunters while guarding for the Audubon Society the Cuthbert Egret Rookery. On Orange Lake Northward the warden in charge still carries in his body a bullet from a plume gatherer's gun. Only three days before my visit Green's nearest brother warden on duty at the Alligator Bay Colony had a desperate rifle battle with four poachers who in defiance of law and decency attempted to shoot the egrets which he was paid to protect. I like to think of Green as I saw him the last night in camp. His brown lean face aglow with interest as he told me many things about the birds he guarded. The next day I was to leave him and night after night he would sit by his fire a lonely representative of the Audubon Society a way down there on the edge of the Big Cypress standing as best he could between the lives of the birds he loved and the insatiable greed of fashion. End of Chapter 10 Chapter 11 of The Bird Study Book This is a LibriVox recording while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Bird Study Book by T. Gilbert Pearson Chapter 11 Making Bird Sanctuaries The best place to study wild birds is on a reservation for their birds have greatly lost their fear of man and primitive conditions have been largely restored. In one of the southern sea bird colonies I have photographed royal turns standing unafraid on the sands not 12 feet distant. They had become so accustomed to the warden in charge that they had regained their confidence in man. At Lake Worth I saw a gentleman feed scop ducks that swam to within two yards of his boat. In thousands of door yards throughout the country wild birds one by kind treatment now take their food or drink within a few feet of their human protectors. The door yards have become little bird reservations. I have several friends who regularly feed chickadees in winter perched on their outstretched hands. It is astonishing how quickly wild creatures respond to a reasonable treatment. This may readily be learned by any householder who will try the experiment. With the little patients any teacher can instruct her pupils in the simple art of making the birds feel at home in the vicinity of the school house. Natural nesting places destroyed. Some kinds of birds as far back as we know their history have built their nests in the holes of trees. Woodpeckers have strong chisel shaped bills and are able to excavate nesting cavities but there are others that do not possess such tools. These must depend on finding the abandoned hole of some woodpecker or the natural hollow of some tree. It not infrequently happens that such birds are obliged to search far and wide for a hole in which they can make their abode. It is customary for those who take care of lawns and city parks to chop away and remove all dead limbs or dead trees. As very few woodpeckers ever attempt to dig a nesting hole in a living tree such work of the axmen means that when the season comes for the rearing of young all mated woodpeckers must move on to wear more natural conditions await them. This results in an abnormal reduction of the number of holes for the use of the weaker build hole nesting species and they must seek the few available hollows or knot holes. Even these places are often taken away from them for along comes the tree doctor who in his purpose of aiding to preserve the trees fills up the natural openings with cement and the birds are literally left out in the cold. It is plainly to be seen therefore that one reason why more birds do not remain in our towns through the spring months is the absence of places where they can lay their eggs and rear their young. Nesting boxes for birds. To overcome this difficulty the Audubon Society several years ago began to advocate the erection of suitable nesting boxes and today the practice is gaining wide usage. More persons every year are putting such boxes upon poles or nailing them to trees about their homes and some city authorities include bird boxes in the annual expenditure for the care of public parks. It was not much more than a decade ago that the first serious commercial attempt was made to place bird boxes on the market. Today there are not less than 25 firms engaged in their manufacture. Some of the boxes are very ornate and make beautiful additions even to the most carefully kept estate. One can buy them at prices varying from 35 cents to 35 dollars each. Among the many responsible manufacturers that may be recommended are the Crescent Company Birdville Tom's River, New Jersey Pinedale Bird Nesting Box Company where in Massachusetts the Audubon Birdhouse Company married in New Hampshire Maplewood Biological Laboratory Stanford, Connecticut Jacobs Birdhouse Company 404 South Washington Street Wainsburg, Pennsylvania Decker Brothers Rhinebeck, New York Winthrop Packard Canton, Massachusetts It is not necessary however to buy boxes to put up for birds. Equally useful ones can be made in the manual training department of any school or in the basement or wood shed at home. If you do not know how to begin you should buy one bird box and construct others similar for yourself. Men sometimes make the mistake of thinking it is absolutely necessary that such boxes should conform strictly to certain set dimensions. Remember that the cavities and trees and stumps which birds naturally use show a wide variety in size, shape, and location. A many-roomed well-painted martin house makes a pleasing appearance in the landscape but may not be attractive to the martins. As a boy I built up a colony of more than 15 pairs of these birds by the simple device of rudely partitioning a couple of soap boxes. The entrances to the different rooms were neither uniform in size nor in shape but were such as an untrained boy could cut out with a hatchet. A dozen gourds each with a large hole in the side completed the tenements for this well-contented martin community. Some rules for making interacting bird boxes. Here are a few simple rules on the making and placing of bird boxes. One, in all nest boxes accept those designed for martins the opening should be several inches above the floor thus conforming to the general plan of a woodpecker's hole or natural cavity in a tree. Two, as a rule nest boxes should be erected on poles from 10 to 30 feet from the ground or fasten to the sides of trees where limbs do not interfere with the outlook. The main exception is in the case of wrens whose boxes or gourds can be nailed or wired in fruit trees or to the side of buildings. Three, martin houses should be erected on poles at least 20 feet high placed well out in the open not less than 100 feet from buildings or large trees. Four, all boxes should be taken down after the nesting season and the old nesting material removed. It should be remembered that whole nesting birds are the only kind that will ever use a bird box. One need not expect a metal arc to leave its nest in the grass for a box on a pole nor imagine that an orial will give up the practice of weaving its swinging cradle on an elm limb to go into a box nailed to the side of a tree. Feeding birds Much can be done to bring birds about the home or the schoolhouse by placing food where they can readily get it. The majority of land birds that pass the winter in Canada or in the colder parts of the United States feed mainly upon seeds. Cracked corn, wheat, rice, sunflower seed, hemp seed, and bird seed purchase readily in any town are therefore exceedingly attractive articles of diet. Breadcrums are enjoyed by many species. Food should not be thrown out on the snow unless there is a crust on it or the snow has been well trampled down. Usually it should be placed on boards. Various feeding plants have been devised to prevent the food from being covered or washed away by snow or rain. Detailed explanations of these can be found in bulletin number one Attracting Birds About the Home issued by the National Association of Audubon Societies. Sew it wired to the limb of a tree on the lawn will give comfort and nourishment to many a chickadee, nut hatch and downy woodpecker. To make a bird sanctuary nesting sites and food are the first requirements. There appears to be no reason why town and city parks should not be made into places of great attraction for the wild birds. Community Sanctuaries At Meridan, New Hampshire there is attractive land containing 32 acres of fields and woods dedicated to the comfort and happiness of wild birds. It is owned by the Meridan Bird Club and owes its existence largely to the intelligence and enthusiasm of Ernest H. Baines bird lover and lecturer who lives there. The entire community takes an interest in its maintenance and there birds are fed and nesting places provided. It is in the widest sense a community sanctuary. There are now a number of these cooperative bird havens established and cared for in practically the same way. One is in Cincinnati, another in Ithaca, New York and still another at Greenwich, Connecticut. Birdcraft Sanctuary The best equipped of this class of community bird refuges as distinguished from private estates or Audubon Society, State or Federal Bird Reservations is Birdcraft Sanctuary in Fairfield, Connecticut. A tract of 10 acres presented to the Connecticut Audubon Society in June 1914. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright President of the Connecticut Society has written that in the creation of this sanctuary it was decided that certain requirements were necessary. A cat-proof fence to surround the entire place, that it may not look aggressive, it should be set well inside the picturesque old wall. Stone gate posts and a rustic gate at the entrance on the highway. A bungalow for the caretaker, wherein there shall be a room for the meetings of the Society's Executive Committee and Board. A tool and workshop of corresponding style. Several rustic shelters and many seats. The assembling of the various springs into a pond so designed as to make an island of a place where the red wings nest. Trails to be cut through the brush and the turf grass and a charming bit of old orchard on the hilltop to be restored for the benefit of warm pulling robins. Several stone basins to be constructed for bird baths. Houses to be put up of all sorts from ren boxes, bun burleps model, flicker and owl boxes to a martin hotel. And lastly, the supplementing of the natural growth by planting pines, spruces and hemlocks for windbreaks and mountain ashes, mulberries, sweet cherries, flowering shrubs and vines for berries and hummingbird honey. Not only were all these things done but there has been built and equipped a small museum of natural history unique in its good taste and usefulness. Cemeteryes as bird sanctuaries. The interest in the subject of bird sanctuaries is growing every day. In fact, all America is now planning new homes for her birds. Homes where they may live with unrestricted freedom where food and lodging in abundance and of the best will be supplied where bathing pools will be at their service where blossoming trees will welcome them in the spring and fields of grain in the fall. Quiet places where these privileges will bring to the birds much joy and contentment. Throughout this country there should be a concerted effort to convert the cemeteries the homes of our friends who have gone away into sanctuaries for the bird life of this land. And what isolated spots could be more welcome to the birds than these places that hold so many sad memories for human beings. No place in the world ought to speak more forcibly to us of the resurrection than the cemeteries of our land. In them we should hear inspiring bird songs, notice the nesting of birds, and the little ones preparing for their flight into the world. There we should find beautiful flowers and waving grain typical of that spiritual harvest which should be associated in our minds with comfort and peace. A Birdless Cemetery I visited not long ago one of the old-time cemeteries, the pride of a neighboring city. It was indeed a place of beauty to the eye, but to my mind there was always something flat and insipid about a landscape lacking the music of singing birds. Therefore I looked and listened for my feathered friends. Some English sparrows flew up from the drive and I heard the rusty hinge-like notes of a small company of purple crackles that were nesting I suspected in the pine trees down the slope. But of really cheerful bird life there appeared to be none in this artificially beautified forty-acre enclosure. There is no reason to suppose that under normal conditions birds would shun a cemetery any more than does the traditional graveyard rabbit. It was not the dread of the dead such as some mortals have that kept the songbirds from this place. It was the work of the living that had driven them away. From one boundary to another there was scarcely a yard of underbrush where a thrasher or chew ink might lurk or in which a red start or a dainty chestnut-sided warbler might place its nest. Not a drop of water was discoverable where a bird might slake its thirst. Neither in limb nor bowl was there a single cavity where a tit-mouse ran or bluebird might construct a bed for its young. No fruit-bearing trees were there to invite the birds in summer nor so far as I could see any berry-bearing shrubs such as birds and joy or any weed patches to attract the flocks of white-throats and junkos that come drifting southward with the falling leaves of autumn. Had my visit to this place been made late in April or in May there might have been a different tale to tell. September might also have yielded more birds than June for September is a season when the migrants are with us for a time. Then the little voyagers of the upper air are wont to pause after a night of tiresome flight and rest for the day in any grove that chances to possess even moderate home comforts. Birds of a New York graveyard Some time ago B.S. Bodish made a careful study of the bird-life of St. Paul's Church chart in New York City. This property is 330 feet long and 177 feet wide. In it is a large church and also a church school. Along one side surge the Broadway throngs. From the opposite side come the roar and rumble of an elevated railway. The area contains according to Mr. Bodish three large, ten medium and forty small trees. With great frequency for two years field glass in hand he pursued his work of making a bird census of the graveyard. No bird's nest rewarded his search for the place was absolutely destitute of feathered songsters during the late spring and summer and with a single exception he never found a bird there in winter. Yet it is interesting to note that in this noisy limited area during the periods of migration he discovered 328 birds embracing 40 species. Why do not more of the birds that pass in spring tarry in this quiet place for the summer? The answer is that the cemetery has been rendered unattractive to them by the merely human committee in charge of the property. During the season when birds are engaged with their domestic duties they are usually a very wise little people. They know perfectly well whether a region is calculated to provide them with sure and safe nesting sites and whether sufficient food and water are available for their daily wands. A little of this same wisdom on our part in a comparatively small expenditure might make a bird paradise of almost any cemetery. Such places are not usually frequented by men and boys who go afield for the purpose of shooting. That is an important point in the establishment of a bird sanctuary. Eliminate enemies. One great enemy of the birds however must be guarded against the domestic cat. This can be done fairly effectively by means of a cat-proof fence. Gunners and cats having been eliminated few other enemies of birds need be seriously considered. Bird catching hawks are not often numerous in the neighborhood of cemeteries. Red squirrels are accused of pilfering from bird's nest and when abundant they may constitute a menace. Properly constructed bird boxes wisely placed have often proved a means of increasing bird life to an astonishing degree and they are absolutely the only inducement to whole nesting varieties to remain during the summer in a cemetery from which all standing dead wood has been removed. Even the strong build woodpecker will not abide in a region where the only trees are living ones unless, per chance, an artificial nest entices the resplendent and dashing flicker to tarry. Many a bluebird with its azure coat gleaming in the sunlight visits the cemetery in early spring. From perch to perch he flies and in his plaintive note can be detected the question that every bird asks of his mate. Where shall we find a place for our nest? In the end he flies away. Therefore, when the roses and lilies bloom the visitor is deprived of the bluebird's cheery song for the little fellow and his mate have departed to the neighboring farm where they may be found, perhaps, in the old apple orchard. A few cents expended for lumber and a very little labor in the making of a small box to be attached to the side of a tree or erected on a post are all that is needed to keep the bluebirds where they can cheer the hearts of soaring visitors. The tiny wrens whose loud bursts of song are entirely out of proportion to their size can be attracted in summer to the proportion of two pairs or more to every acre. It is a curious fact of which I believe but little has been written that birds that build open nests may often be induced to remain in a locality if attractive nesting material is placed within easy reach. In many a cemetery orioles could be tempted to weave cradles among the swaying elm limbs if strings and fragments of brightly colored yarns were placed where the birds could find them. Baron Bon Berschlaps whose experiments in attracting birds to his place in Germany have been widely advertised found that when the tops of bushes were drawn in closely by means of a wire or cord the resulting thick mass of leaves and twigs offered so fine a place for concealing nests that few birds could resist the temptation to use them. Other means of rendering a cemetery alluring to nesting birds will readily present themselves when an active interest is developed in the subject. A little thought, a little care, and a little trouble would make it possible for many birds to dwell in a cemetery and it must be remembered that unless they can nest there the chances are that no great volume of bird music will fill the air. The young of most sown birds are fed to a great extent on the soft larvae of insects of which there is usually an abundant supply everywhere. Many mother birds however like to vary this animal diet with a little fruit juice and the ripened pulp of the blackberry, strawberry or mulberry will cheer the spirits of their nestlings. Such fruits in most places are easily grown and they make a pleasant addition to the bird's menu. In a well-watered territory birds are often more numerous than in a dry region. You may find a hundred of them along the stream in the valley to one on the mountaintop. A cemetery undecorated with fountains and through or near which no stream flows is too dry a place for the average bird to risk the exigencies of rearing a family. A few simply constructed fountains or drinking pools will work wonders in the way of attracting birds to a waterless territory. In many graveyards considerable unoccupied space might well be planted in buckwheat or some other small grain. If this is left uncut the quantity of nourishing food thus produced will bring together many kinds of grain-eating birds. Berries and fruits for birds Many native shrubs and bushes grow berries that birds will come far to gather. Look over the following lists which Frederick H. Kennard of Massachusetts has recommended and see if you do not think many of them would be decorative additions to the cemetery. Surely some of them are equal in beauty to many of the shrubs usually planted and they have the added value of furnishing birds with wholesome food. Here is a part of Mr. Kennard's list. Shadbush, Gray, Silky and Red Ossier, Cornell, Dangleberry, Alcoberry, Inkberry, Black Alder, Bayberry, Shining Smooth and Staghorn Sumax, Large Flowering Current, Thimbleberry, Blackberry, Elder, Snowberry, Dwarf Billberry, Blueberry, Black Haw, Hobblebush and Arrowood. In the way of fruit-bearing shade trees, he recommends Sugar Maple, Flowering Dogwood, White and Coxbore Thorn, Native Red Mulberry, Tupelo, Black Cherry, Choke Cherry and Mountain Ash. For the same purpose he especially recommends the planting of the following vines, Virginia Creeper, Bullbeaver, Frostgrape and Foxgrape. Such shrubs and vines are usually well stripped of their berries after the first heavy snowfall. That is the time to begin feeding the birds in earnest. The more food wisely placed where the birds can get it, the more birds you will surely have in the winter. Seeds and grain with a judicious mixture of animal fat from the best possible ration for the little-feathered pilgrims. Rye, wheat, sunflower seeds and crack corn mixed together in equal parts and accompanied by a liberal sprinkling of ground suet and beef scrap make an excellent food for birds at this season. This should be placed on shelves attached to trees or buildings or on oil cloth spread on the snow or on the ground where the snow has been scraped away. On one occasion the writer attracted many birds by the simple method of providing them with finely pounded fresh beef bones. Furnishing birds with food in winter might well be a pleasant and profitable duty of the children who attend Sunday school in rural churches that have graveyards near. Why should we not make a bird sanctuary of every city park and cemetery in America? Why leave these places to the sparrows, the crackles, and perhaps the starlings when bluebirds and thrushes are within hail eager to come with the hand of invitation be extended? End of Chapter 11