November io, 1893."] SCIENCE. 255 SCIENCE: storms, high winds and downpours of heavy rain. Cer- tain predatory mammals capture others, or reptiles de- vour their young. No doubt, finally, that diseases, in- juries and accidents take away their annual quota, but the proportion thus destroyed must, in comparison with other causes of mortality, be exceedingly small. Now for a number of years past it has be6n widely no- ticed that in the suburban districts of many cities all over the United States, there has been a more or less marked decrease in numbers of many of our native birds, as, for example, orioles, robins, blue-birds and many other species. Frequently such reports are only too well founded in fact, while in other cases they have been over-rated. Certain it is, nevertheless, that within the last twenty years birds in the most of such localities have been becoming more and more scarce, while in some places where certain species were formerly abundant, those very species are practically now almost extinct. Numerous inquiries, scientific and otherwise, have been made with the view of finding out, if possible, the cause or causes which are accountable for bringing about this very unde- sirable state of things. After more or less mature delib- eration some attributed it to one cause, some to another, and some to a combination of causes. Many were dis- posed to believe that the introduction of the English sparrow lay at the bottom of the -whole trouble; in the eyes of some the ''feather-venders'' had all to do with it, while from other quarters the blame was attached entire- ly to the taxidermists and the bird collectors. As far as the writer has seen or heard not much importance has evei' been attached to any other cause as a means of des- truction of bird life, with perhaps the exception of the introduction of large lighting apparatuses >u 'many places, where no doubt thousands of birds at night are yearly destroyed. For more reasons than one the introduction of the English sparrow into this country was an expensive blun- der, but that they are chiefly responsible for the disap- pearance of many of our native species of birds in the localities we have mentioned, I never have in that view been a firm believer, and my faith is not increased as time goes by. In the first place, it directly militates against every personal observation I have ever made in the prem- ises, and I have faithfully studied the species for many years. Many of our native birds whip the English spar- row in each and all contests wrhere they come in contact, and drive«them out of the nesting places. They almost invariably give way before robins, cat-birds, wrens, mar- tins and many others. Blue-birds appear to be more timid and gentle, and they simply keep out of the spar- row's way and make no attempt to oppose him, while on three or four occasions last spring I have seen the com- mon house wren deliberately hustle sparrows out of a bird-box, where they had bred the season before, and re- occupy it themselves. That the indiscriminate slaughter of small birds for milliner) purposes, by conscience-ridden dealers, was for a long time a prime cause has been proven beyond cavil, and such people should simply be prosecuted by all the rigor of the law, and made to desist quite as promptly as that party who would commit any act that threatened the agricultural interests of the country, for no one will ques- tion for a moment but what the removal of our insectiv- orous birds does that very thing. Were all the birds in the country destroyed there is no power known to man that could check the enormous increase in insect life or the destruction of plant-life that would follow as a con- sequence. Such a wholesale disturbance of Nature's bal- ance will not occur; while on the other hand I am not prepared to say whether the recent known decrease in our birds in certain localities has been followed by a cor- Published by N. D. C. HODGES, 874 Broadway, New York Subscriptions to any part of the World, $3.50 a year. To any contributor, on request in advance, one hundred copies of the issue containing his article will be sent without charge. More copies will be sup- plied at about cost, also if ordered in advance. Reprints are not supplied, as for obvious reasons we desire to circulate as many copies of Science as pos- sible. Authors are, however, at perfect liberty to havetheirarticlesreprint- ed elsewere. For illustrations, drawings in black and white suitable for photo-engraving should be supplied by the contributor. Rejected manu- scripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessa- rily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold our- selves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Attention is called to the "Wants" column. It is invaluable to those who use it in soliciting information or seeking new positions. The name and ad- dress of applicants should be given in full, so that answers will go direct to them. The "Exchange" column is likewise open. SOME RECENT ECONOMIC AND SCIENTIFIC QUES- TIONS IN ORNITHOLOGY.* BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M. D., WASHINGTON, D. C. Ornithology has attained to a status to-day never be- fore reached by that science at any time within the recol- lection of man, or as shown by its literature. In this country its cultivation not only interests thousands of amateurs, but its pursuit is followed by a host of eager experts, while its economic value has not altogether been overlooked by the government, which annually makes an appropriation in support of a depart- ment dealing with ornithological questions as related to agriculture. Regarded as the science is, then, from so many varied standpoints, it is not at all surprising that we find the collecting of birds actively undertaken for a great variety of purposes. Some of these are perfectly justifiable and fall strictly within the demands of the science and are essential to its progress, while others lie more or less without the pale of any such need, and con- sequently are deserving of our most energetic condemna- tion or prosecution. Thousands of birds are destroyed every year as a mere matter of sport, and either no use made of them whatever, or none worthy of mention. In this category, of course, I do not include the killing of game-birds for the table, a privilege that can be properly restricted legally, although it is very frequently more than abused. Many native birds are annually trapped for cages, and a large proportion of them perish. Quan- tities are destroyed by "feather-hunters" to supply the demands of fashion. Numbers are killed by ignorant farm-hands, who labor under the impression that they do humanity a direct benefit every time they take the life of a king-bird, a martin, or a marsh-hawk. Then there are a few taxidermists who habitually destroy birds as a business, to preserve their skins and mount them for sale. As a rule, however, taxidermists are engaged only in the preservation of such birds as are brought to them, or else pursue their profession in scien- tific educational institutions or elsewhere. Next we meet with every grade of amateur and scien- tific collector of bird-skins, who claim each year a certain proportion of specimens for scientific or semi scientific purposes. In nature, also, some species prey upon others and thousands are thus annually destroyed, while every season the lives of millions of others are claimed by *Read at the World's Congress Auxilary of the World's Colum- bian Exposition:-Division of Ornithology. October 18-27, 1893. 256 SCIENCE, [Vol. XXII. No. 562 responding increase of any particular species of noxious insects. That is a point for the entomologist to decide for us. What comparatively few birds are gathered in for sci- entific purposes, I am strongly of the opinion, has but very little influence either one way or the other upon bird increase or decrease. Take a city like Chicago, for example, and its extreme suburban environs; how few, indeed, in proportion to her population, are there of her inhabitants who collect in the neighborhood birds for scientific purposes! In the course of a collecting season how many young scientific ornithologists in Chicago go out into her suburbs to collect birds? Not in any suffi- cient numbers, I warrant, to have any material effect upon the decrease of native birds. The same suggestion is applicable to other large towns and cities in the United States and Territories. When one comes to think of the millions of birds that pass over the country during the vernal or autumnal migrations every year, and then come to compare that host with all that has been deducted from it during the last century, as represented by all the birds actually existing in scientific collections, the loss is hardly worthy of mention. Moreover, more than half of our scientific avian collectors do not collect in the sub- urban districts but go far from the habitations of men, and so their work cannot be said to affect the question at all. But there is a cause in my opinion, however, for the scarcity of our native birds in and about cities and large towns of this country, before which all other reasons we have mentioned stand absolutely aghast. It is the whole- sale destruction carried on by the army of unscrupulous small-boys in any particular place. I am the more con- vinced of this from my observations in and about Wash- ington, D. C., during the past four years. This active destruction has been made possible by the numerous comparatively recent and cheap inventions in the way of air and spring-guns, as well as cheap rifles of small cali- bre, also other fatal contrivances that will noiselessly throw missiles of a variety of kinds with great accuracy. Hundreds of those guns are sold annually to boys, and the latter never seem to tire of strolling about orchards and hedge-rows and knocking over dozens upon dozens of birds with them. One day last spring I met one such youngster, and upon examining his game-bag found it absolutely crammed full of dead birds which he had killed since starting out in the morning. One item alone consisted of seventy-two ruby and golden-crowned king- lets. The same fellow boasted of having slain over one hundred cat-birds that season. Boys get to be wonder- fullv expert shots with the kind of guns to which I refer, and' as the ammunition costs little or nothing, and a great quantity can be carried at a time, it is easy to be seen that between the wholesale slaughter they can and do commit, in addition to keeping the remaining birds per- petually alarmed, it is no wonder that they are soon driven away from the neighborhood of our cities and country seats. There are ample legal measures within our power to enforce, to prevent this cause of bird decrease, especially if the fathers of those boys are held responsible, and I would suggest that it be the sense of this congress that such measures will be recommended to the various State legislators hereafter that will have the tendency to thor- oughly discourage such practices.