Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1878 — Where the Birds Go. [ARTICLE]

Where the Birds Go.

The prevailing decrease in the number of insectivorous and other small birds is an established fact. Various causes may be assigned for the diminution, but it seems to me the grand one is the inevitable tendency of civilization to annihilate all forms of wild life. It is sometimes said that boys destroy large numbers of brids. It is my observation, however, that lioys wantonly destroy very few birds. The incipient hunter, being anxious to attest his destructive skill, will sometimes shoot a bird, but the popular disapproval that follows the act generally cures him of his ambition to destroy anything, not legitimate game. In some of the Middle and Southern States large numbers of robins and rice-birds (bobolinks) are annually destroyed by hunters. In these places such birds are game, being captured and consumed with every consideration of profit that attend the killing of pigeons and paitridges. I am not aware that the general habits of the community are anywhere direetly opposed to the existence of common song birds, and others not generally regarded as proper objects for destruction; the fact that certain varieties of these birds in a measure recognize man as their natural protector weighs against the proposition. The few birds captured for scientific purposes hardly affect the general number of individuals. The indirect efforts of civilization are strongly prejudicial to the existence and multiplication of birds. The destruction of forests deprives birds of their natural haunts; the relentless scythe, that searches out every nook and corner of the grass lot, frightens them from Qur fields; the con stant modification of physical relations, effected by thorough tillage, destroys the means of sustenance of certain varieties. In general terms, the earth, to support more men, can sustain only less birds. Strange as it may at first seem, certain mechanical inventions are eminently deadly to birds. The tendency of birds to dash into a bright light is well known. One morning, this year, 143 dead birds were found lodged upon a lighthouse near New Haven, Conn. We cannot tell how many hundreds, after striking the light, fell dead into the water that night. Over 200 birds were also found one morning this season on board a propeller in Long Island Sound, many-, if not all, of which were killed by flying against the headlight and smoke-stacks. More than these, the pilotof the steamer Continental, at Hell (late, found. nn» night thu jSG»j2nn, thn rlooU covered with dead small birds. They were swept off in heaps, and, in the morning, over 750 were counted; and this was only a part of them. Bird laws will accomplish something in behalf of the harmless feathered tribes; but it looks as if the time is coming when our native song birds must be domesticated to be preserved. —Manchester (N. //.) Mirror.