Illlllllllllilllilllllllllllll liiil } u! H llll 11 ill I ill lllllllllllllilllllliliilllil ^^^^jg^ :-.A ■. :,■ . ':■■; ■;■'■ !! ik ..ii* .■; ;. i'lR /irli ■■fl* ' •«' ■'rM^LH.' ■ ■ ■■ :i&^ '.•I'Ba k'^\WW\'- THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF ITS ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE AND CONSERVATION BY G. INNESS HARTLEY ^c ^ ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1922 Copyright, 1922, by The Century Co. PEINTBD IN" IT. S. A» PREFACE Coal- and iron-mines are largely responsible for rapid development of the United States. From California, Nevada, Alaska, and elsewhere vast deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, a multitude of metals, some precious and others base though valuable, have presented enormous wealth to our country. Our great subterranean lakes of oil have made possible the expansion of the gas-en- gine and the automobile to their present state of efficiency. For centuries the banks of Newfound- land have filled our markets with fish. To the forests of Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ore- gon we owe a debt for timber which can never be repaid. From Alaska come sealskins, fertilizer from the phosphatic accumulations of the Caro- linas and Florida, wild hay from the prairies, and so on through the mile-long list. The resources of America are immeasurable. But, while we prick up our ears upon being in- formed that this fishery produces so many tons of fish worth so much, or that from that oyster- bed may annually be taken ten million oysters, or that so-and-so's manganese-mine accounted for a hundred car-loads of ore last year, we show little PREFACE interest when we are told that a sparrow hawk captures ten score field-mice a year and innum- erable grasshoppers. Yet those very sparrow hawks save the American farmer considerably more than the combined worth of the fishery, the oyster-bed, and the manganese-mine together. A large amount of valuable matter has been written on the economic relations of birds to ag- riculture, their relation to man as game birds, domesticated fowl, producers of guano, ornamen- tal plumage bearers, cage birds, and food. But each of these is a specialized field and has been treated separately as such. One to obtain infor- mation concerning the agricultural value of birds is compelled to turn to a treatise on economic or- nithology; for their domestication you must pur- sue a poultry book ; other volumes deal with game- birds and game-laws, with cage birds or ornamen- tal plumes. In the following pages the author has endeav- ored to discuss the importance of bird life to man- kind in all its economic phases. Owing to lack of space, he has not laid particular stress either up- on its effect on agriculture or upon the domestica- tion of the fowl. These are admittedly the most important functions of bird life from man^s point of view and have been largely dealt with in other volumes. The author contents himself with rather a brief resume of these functions and passes on to less notable, though highly important, fields. PREFACE In collecting material for this volume the author acknowledges special indebtedness for the publica- tions of the State Conservation Commission of New York, the Board of Game Commissioners of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Depart- ment of Agriculture of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the United States Department of Agriculture. He here desires to thank Dr. William T. Hornaday, director of the New York Zoological Park, and Lee S. Crandal, curator of birds at the same institution, for their personal interest and aid in his work. G. Inness Hartley. Southampton, Long Island, July 1, 1922. CONTENTS CHAPTEB PAGB I Their Place in Nature 3 II Their Relation to Agriculture ... 24 III Their Effect Upon Health and the Works OF Majst 51 IV Domestic Fowl 59 V Domestic Pigeons 86 VI Birds Trained to Hunt 114 VII Birds Trained to Perform . . . . . 134 VIII Ornamental Plumes 154 IX Feather Industries 176 X Guano 196 XI Birds as Food 213 XII Game-birds 233 XIII Game-laws 259 XIV A Conservation Sketch 286 Appendix t. . . 302 Index 307 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Quintette of Mouse Destroyers . . . Frontispiece TACIVQ FAQS A Million Birds on One Island 8 The Rookeries Lie Like Dark Shadows of Immovable Clouds 8 Buff Orpin^on Cock 72 Buff Orpington Capon 72 The Red Jungle Fowl 72 Silky Bantams 72 A Loft of Homing Pigeons, Showing the Trap Door 104 The Message Is Placed in a Metal Cylinder Fastened to the Leg of the Bird 104 Almost Exterminated for the Plumage Trade . . 168 Bought in London, 1912 176 Victoria Crowned Pigeon, the Bird Which Is Scalped for Its Lacy Plumes 176 Albatrosses of Laysan Island Before the Tragedy 176 1050 Plumes of the B*ird of Paradise, Seized by the U. S. Customs Officers 184 A Pair of Nubians 184 Disused Cormorant Nests, Showing Guano Ready for Gathering 224 A Cabot's Tern Colony in Texas .224 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE The Hunt for Down, Plumage and Food Extermi- nated These 232 The Market Hunters Return . . . . . . .248 Wild Ducks Killed Under the Law 278 Canada Goose and Her Brood of Goslings . . . 278 The Result of Conservation 296 View of the Rearing Field on the Virginia State Quail Farm 296 A Flock of Bob-Whites and Their Bantam Mother 296 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE CHAPTER I THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 1. Population. 2. Natural Enemies. 3. Destruction of Inaects. 4. Effect on Vegetation. 5. Destruction of Vertebrates. 6. Minor Relations. 7. Summary. Population Quite the most obvious of all the laws of nature is the one that requires all living organisms to consume food in one form or another to enable them to survive and multiply. This food as a general rule consists of other living organisms. Plant life alone is able to obtain sustenance di- rectly from the chemical elements of the soil. Deer, for instance, relish as food the blades of grass ; but the wolf and certain other carnivorous beasts equally relish the flesh of the deer. And it is fortunate for the welfare of the grazing race that this is so. Without a host of deadly enemies, 4 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE — including disease, climatical alterations, and the elements, as well as living creatures, — deer theoretically would multiply at such a rapid rate that the North American continent would be over- nin within a few decades. The soil could not pro- duce sufficient fodder for their needs ; the verdure would be grazed to death. As a result, the deer would starve : the species would die out, extermi- nated by its own prolificacy. One of the chief instruments chosen by nature to combat this excessive production is the carni- vore; and the deer, however paradoxical it may sound, is really saved by its most feared and deadly enemies. The Balance of Nature is main- tained, and it is this Balance which permits the world to carry on where otherwise it would choke itself to death. Like the deer, birds, if permitted to multiply unmolested, would increase at an appalling rate, four or five times faster than the animals. The avian class by so much the sooner would become extinct through overpopulation. Fortunately for the world in general, unless man is the extermi- nator, such a catastrophe cannot overtake us. The natural enemies of birds are far too numer- ous to permit of so rapid an expansion. Despite these enemies, birds survive in untold multitudes. It is due to their superior mode of travel that they are so universally scattered over THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 5 the land surfaces of the earth. There exists scarcely a single sea-swept rock, sand spit, or coral key which is not the home of some form of feath- ered life. The north and south polar regions, during their respective summer seasons, are over- run with countless hordes of geese and penguins. The mountain tops have special species of their own. The Sahara Desert is populated with a few small birds and a multitude of vultures. Even the oceans boast of a winged fauna of albatrosses, phalaropes, gulls, and petrels. Not only have birds world-wide distribution, but their species are the most numerous of all ver- tebrated animals. Insects and mollusks, alone of all the animal kingdom, surpass them in this re- spect. To-day there are known to exist about 19,000 species and subspecies of birds, and numer- ous newly described forms are annually being added to the list. Against these may be named in the scientific calendar something more than 15,000 species of fish, about 1000 of amphibians, roughly 3500 of reptiles, and of mammals, the class which we commonly associate with the greatest number of forms of all, only 4500! Of the now existing continents. South America, with its gigantic rain forest, contains the most varied bird fauna. Upward of 5000 racial forms have thus far been described from there, and prob- ably when the entire region has been exploited 6 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE several thousand more will be added.^ In North America there are about 1200 forms listed. Eu- rope, Asia, Africa, and Australia are rich in forms, but a combined census — minus a thousand or two island subspecies — shows them to contain alto- gether scarcely more than the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. Although fish lead in actual total number, birds make not a bad second when compared with the comparatively meager numerical strength of the remaining vertebrates. We know that seventy years ago hundreds of thousands of bison roamed the plains of the West in herds so vast that they extended beyond the horizon. Within the present generation, even to-day, fifty and seventy thou- sand caribou may constitute a single herd on the frozen prairies of northern Canada and Alaska. Audubon, however, in 1813, observed a flock of passenger pigeons which took three days to fly past a certain point! There were more than two and a quarter hillion pigeons in that one drove. ^^The air was literally filled with Pigeons, the light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse. . . .'* Stefansson, the arctic explorer, tells of Banks Island and neighboring lands several hundred miles north 1 Eacial forms as opposed to species are geographical sub- divisions of the latter, generally diverging from the type in color, size, or both. Thus, for example, there are described twenty-two races, or subspecies, of the common song sparrow. {Melospiza m. melodia) , all found in North America. THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 7 of the arctic circle as being ''white with millions of wavy geese'' (perhaps snow-geese) in the breeding season. Good authorities state that nine million penguins inhabit Dassen Island off the Cape of Good Hope; and R. C. Murphy, of the American Museum, speaks of almost a million cormorants living on a tiny island off the coast of Peru. While it is difficult to visualize these mil- lions without seeing them, they nevertheless react as a vivid contrast to the puny thousands of bison and caribou. Therefore, because of their almost universal distribution and the incalculable numbers in which we find them, it is not at all surprising that birds play a major part in the really small cosmos of our planet. Theirs is a great mission, a mission which is undertaken with the utmost diligence and cour- age. In a large measure they preserve the Balance of Nature, in that they check the swelling hordes of insects, control the spread of plant life, replant denuded land surfaces, and extirpate or control the small vertebrates that first ravaged the vege- tation of the world and then turned their atten- tion to the crops of mankind. They are a power- ful factor. 2 Natural Enemies Among the natural enemies of birds disease probably holds a far more important position than 8 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE is generally supposed. Social species, those that live in flocks, are particularly subject to its rav- ages. Thousands of crows die each year in a single roost from the effects of a virulent throat and nostril malady which may possibly wipe out the entire community. There is a *^ grouse dis- ease'' in Grreat Britain which has accounted for tens of thousands of game-birds. Others are attacked by a form of tuberculosis, and great numbers of sandpipers each spring are left behind on their northerly migration from South America because of diseased sexual organs. Changes of climate and storms also take an appreciable tolL It has been said by more than one good authority that an icy winter kills more game-birds than all the human hunters combined. This statement, in the present day of millions of eager gunners, perhaps is stretching the actual facts, but there is no reason to doubt that entire coveys of bob-white quail and other gallinaceous fowl are frozen stiff in cold, sleety weather. Land birds driven to sea by storms during their migra- tions have been known to succumb in thousands. This is one of the causes, though probably not the true one, given for the sudden disappearance of the passenger pigeon. Still other birds, unable to migrate south in the winter' because of disease, injury, or old age, starve to death. Certain species do not leave the temperate cli- mate in which they are born. In the winter Courtesy of Dr. R. C. Murphy A MILLION BIRDS ON ONE ISLAND Courtesy of Dr. R. C. Murphy THE ROOKERIES LIE LIKE DARK SHADOWS OF IMMOVABLE CLOUDS ON THE SLOPING EXPANSES OF ROCK, WHITENED WITH CHALKY GUANO THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 9 months they become the prey of a host of preda- ceous creatures. When the soil is frozen and the field-mice are safely burrowed in their warm win- ter nests, then goshawks, Cooper's hawks, sharp- shinned hawks, horned owls, and others descend upon the weaker members of the bird tribe. An occasional rabbit is added to their menu, but game- and song-birds are their choicest morsels. They take a fair toll in the spring and summer months, but alleviate it somewhat with mice and other small rodents. Hawks and owls are not the only creatures that prey upon the less ferocious species. Keeping them company are the ^^ vermin,'' individually known are weasels, skunks, lizards, snakes, and the like. A fox seeks out a bird as it would the daintiest titbit. Cats of the tabby variety, which have long forgotten the meaning of a home hearth, utilize them as a staple article of diet. Lizards wax fat on their eggs, as do snakes of many varieties. Nor are ** vermin" and a few species of hawks and owls the only animal enemies of bird kind. To a certain extent the birds war upon themselves. Crows and jays rob a nest of its eggs or young as much to satisfy their marauding instincts a& for food, and they are not averse to raiding the home of one of their own species: they do con- siderable damage. Where there are large colo- nies of breeding cormorants and other sea-birds^ 10 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE guUs reap a rich harvest of eggs and nestlings. Condors, until driven off by watchmen, created much havoc among the great guano rookeries of Peru. Skuas hold the penguins of anarctic re- gions in check. From the foregoing it would seem as if the odds against survival are so overwhelming that birds will soon be but memories of the past. The limit- ing barrier, however, is not so mighty as it ap- pears. Birds as a whole are extremely prolific. When matured, owing to their power of flight, they are difficult of capture. F^inally, they <3arry on a not ineffective strife with their en- emies, inflicting at times as much damage as they receive. Thus, while certain hawks and owls prefer a diet of bird flesh, others, like the red- tailed or so-called ^^ hen-hawk,'' the American sparrow-hawk, and the majority of owls, subsist mainly on ** vermin'' in its varying forms. Some kites and another *^ hen-hawk," the red-shouldered species, delight in the flesh of lizards and snakes. Harmful rodents, such as field-mice and rats, all of which will break into a succulent egg with pleasure, are mainly kept within bounds by the birds. Being thus able to hold their own, birds play no mean part in the economic relations of mankind by limiting the rodent pests which destroy crops ; but this is of comparatively small moment in the I)ro^dei' field of Nature. Birds have a greater THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 11 mission : like the weasel and the fox in their own world, they are the spoilers of the insect world. 3 Destruction of Insects Insects are fair game. Finches and game-birds subsist mainly on seeds — weeds, acorns, or grain, as the case may be; robins and catbirds enjoy a juicy cherry or a luscious strawberry; parrots and toucans consume tropical fruit in enormous quantities ; but all of them will swallow an insect with avidity, be they song sparrow, partridge, robin, or toucan. A beetle to a bird is like a drop of nectar to a honey-bee, to be consumed immedi- ately without the loss of a second. Certain spe- cies survive wholly upon insects; insects are es- sential to the diet of most others, particularly in the nesting season when the young are to be fed. Night-hawks, swifts, and swallows live virtually on them alone. Grasshoppers furnish much of the daily fare of turkeys. The American spar- row-hawk prefers a grasshopper above anything else as food. A wood-duck will swim far for the larva of a dragon-fly. A hununingbird devours microscopic insects by the hundred at a meal. The importance of insect destruction cannot be overestimated when we stop to consider the potential possibilities of the tiny organisms. Let ^ it be understood that there are some four hun- 12 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE dred thousand ^species already recognized, and virtually all .are capable of multiplying at an ap- palling rate. With this great potentiality for reproduction, then, insects cannot be allowed to go unchecked; otherwise within a short time, the surface of the earth would be a wasted desert. Fortunately nature has provided a multitude of enemies, more, indeed, than birds ever dreamed of having. Thus, the mycelium of certain fungi (the thread- like body of the plants) thrives on the bodies of certain insects; diseases blight them; frost and flood cut short their lives; animals, like the ant- e.ater, make of them a sole source of food; para- sites flourish and grow fat upon them ; they wage continual war among themselves; and birds de- stroy them — ^parasites, predaceous forms, and all. But while this form of destruction is perhaps the greatest mission of birds in nature, it also is of the highest economic importance to agri- culture and wiU be discussed more at length in the next chapter. 4 Effect on Vegetation The next great avian function falls under two apparently opposite heads: the limiting of vege- tation and the spreading of vegetation. THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 13 Limiting of vegetation is confined to the de- struction of fruit and seeds. Birds excel in this. Enormous quantities are annually done away with. Much depends upon the type of fruit, whether its mere digestion will serve to kill the enclosed seed, or whether the seed vnll pass un- scathed through the intestines and emerge ready to germinate. If the fruit happens to be unripe the seed naturally seldom survives. Although birds each year consume millions of tons, they do not succeed in rendering all the seeds sterile. A large proportion, especially seeds of berries, live to germinate after they have been evacuated. On the other hand, a great number of weed seeds are destroyed. It has been determined by experiment that the vegetarians among birds fall into three natural groups. The first is made up of those species which grind and break up the hardest fruits and seeds in their gizzards by the aid of pebbles and gritty sand. Among these are the gallinaceous fowl (e. g., turkeys, grouse, quail, and domestic fowl), pigeons, ducks, titmice, sparrows, and most finches. The smaller birds crush the seeds in their bills before swallowing. The next group is partly composed of crows, ravens, jackdaws, and jays. Hard-coated berry seeds and cherry-pits pass uninjured through their intestines or may be evicted through the 14 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE mouth, but soft-skinned seeds are utterly de- stroyed. Thrushes form the third group. These do not retain the seeds for long after swallowing the fruit containing them. As quickly as the pulp is disposed of, the seeds are rejected through the mouth before they can pass from the crop to the gizzard. The small seeds, however, travel through the intestines, with the result that about 80 per cent, are afterward capable of germination. Likewise all hard seeds which pass through members of the second group germinate, but none from the first group. The finches in the United States daily destroy sufficient weed seeds to earn for them the eternal gratitude of the country. But in the same way, while the finches are de- stroying their daily millions, more millions are Deing scattered broadcast by the other groups, to take the place of plants which have succumbed to time or malnutrition. This brings us to birds in their character of planters. Four-footed animals, the nut-storing squirrels and berry-eating bears for example, play an active part in the spread of plant life, but birds by all odds are primary factors. Crows, jays, and woodpeckers are responsible for far more dispersal of seeds than they are commonly given credit for. They store great heaps of nuts like squirrels ; they hide them singly in crev- THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 15 ices of the bark, or collectively under logs; or they drop them miles from the parent tree. The nuts sprout, take root, and perhaps mature in a spot where wooded plants never grew before. It is not rare to notice an old disused field, for- saken by the farmer because of its barrenness, covered with a scattering of young oaks, hick- ories, sycamores, and the like. Each year adds to its new flora. Field-mice and other small rodents are responsible for some of this, and the wind has played its part ; but birds have been the chief conductors. To them are due the black- berries, the strawberries, and the trailing dew- berries. The wind brought the sycamores, the willows, and the maples, but the acorns of the oaks were transported by the birds. Although, as has been stated, a certain number of seeds are expelled from the mouth, the gener- ality pass through the intestines before evac- uation. Seeds may thus be distributed abroad as the bird flies, or when it perches. The pres- ence of a large number of hedge-rows is due to the latter event. The American farmer does not make a common practice of planting hedges be- tween fields. He is constrained to erect a fence, post and rail, stone, or wire, as he sees fit or the resources of the locality allow. His live stock have to be kept within bounds ; a hedge is ineffective for this purpose. Unless, however, the farmer m^aintains a con- 16 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE tinual guard with brier hook and scythe, a hedge invariably does spring into being along the fence line. Almost before he reaUzes it, there will arise a well defined row of junipers, choke- cherries, sassafras, a conglomeration of a dozen species perhaps, and banked by dense growth of blackberries, wild raspberries, or sumacs. As none of these spring from wind-blown seeds, birds must be the carrying agents, or, if it be a stone fence^ chipmunks, perhaps, and birds. Again, certain plants owe their very existence to the agency of birds. To the fruit-pigeons is attributed the spread of wild nutmegs over New Guinea and the surrounding islands. The pig- eons swallow the fruit for the sake of the red ^*mace" which covers the seed, and later throw out the hard pellet through the mouth as robins do cherry-pits, or expel it with their feces. A more striking example of entire dependence is the case of the mistletoe. Living only as a parasite on trees, the seed must be deposited in a crevice of bark before the plant can develop. The white viscous berries are eaten only by birds, who later evacuate the seeds freed of pulp. If this occurs while the bird is perched in a tree, the excrement runs down over the branch and the seeds find a lodgment for later germination. Further distribution of plant life may occur from the mud which sometimes adheres to the feet. Such an eventuality is particularly prevalent THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 17 among species like the woodcock and marsh birds which live in muddy areas. Darwin was able to rear eighty-two plants from a single ball of earth adhering to the foot of a partridge. The rough- ened shank of the large tinamou of South America carries an appreciable amount of earthy material lodged in the crevices of its rear scales. This forest mold ordinarily contains seeds. Birds are beneficial to vegetation in other ways. The hummingbird, for instance, aids in the cross- pollination of blossoms by carrying pollen in its feathers from one flower to another. This holds true for other species, but as the work would be carried on by insects if birds were not present their efforts cannot be assumed to play an essen- tial part in cross-pollination. On the other hand, ripened seeds like beggar ^s-lice and cockles are specially constructed to adhere to feathers and fur, and may be carried a long distance before their hosts can free themselves. Once more, considerable dispersal of vege- tation is due to birds of prey. The osprey when it plunges after carp or perch often clutches a talonful of water-weeds as well as its intended quarry. These are sometimes transported to a tree that overhangs another body of water. There, while the osprey consumes its catch, the weeds drop down into the new water. At the same time the contents of the fish's stomach drip into the lake, carrying great numbers of minute 18 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE aquatic plants and often seeds. Similarily, when a Cooper's hawk devours a granivorous bird, the material in the crop of the victim is scattered upon the ground, or is expelled later in the feces of its slayer. Destruction of Vertebrates Having touched slightly upon insects and dis- cussed the subject of limitation of vegetation, we now arrive at the third mission in which birds hold a trump card. This is the suppression of vertebrates. Although the destruction of rodents properly falls in the field of economics and will be dis- cussed at greater length in the next chapter, birds have an effect on other vertebrates which war- rants a place here. Large hawks, eagles, and owls exert considerable influence over the home life of many medium-sized animals. The hawk- eagles of South America subsist almost wholly upon monkeys and other mammals that inhabit the roof of the jungle. In other parts of the world eagles capture fawn, young antelope, sheep, goats, and even young wild pigs. Nor are reptiles exempt. The secretary-bird of South Africa is closely protected by law because of its fondness for poisonous snakes. In our country, THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 19 besides several hawks that prey upon snakes and lizards, the turkey-vulture exhibits a fondness for the eggs of alligators, a habit which serves in some measure to hold those reptiles within proper bounds. Sea-birds are harbingers of destruction to the fish group. Most of them live entirely upon fish. Gulls, albatrosses, and fliers of that type annually devour millions of tons. Other than these, there exist numerous colonies of fish-eat- ing cormorants, boobies, and pelicans, to say nothing of penguins, auks, and sea-ducks. A single colony sometimes consists of hundreds of thousands of individuals, even of millions. So plentiful are the cormorants and other water- fowl of the St. Lawrence Gulf that they darken the face of clitf s already whitened with their ex- creta. And the St. Lawrence is only one of many similarily infested regions of the earth. Parts of the antarctic continent form another area with its millions, as do the coasts of Alaska, Labrador, and Peru, and every one of the aquatic birds that live there is a fish-eater. Allowing one pound of fish a day to a cormorant, — a low esti- mate, — we can reckon that a small colony of 100,000 birds will consume fifty tons, or virtually two full carloads, every twenty-four hours. With the million upon million individuals of this single family in existence, and other millions of their 20 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE kindred with even more voracious appetites, it is evident that their combined daily toll is enor- mous. When compared to that of aquatic birds, the damage done to the fish tribe by such species as the osprey and the kingfisher is slight. It is ap- preciable, however, when we remember that they confine their operations to small bodies of water which of necessity must have a limited aquatic population. Thus, kingfishers carry havoc among the minnows and small fry of lesser waterways and ponds, and therefore no longer receive pro- tection from the law. But, despite their depre- dations, their part in the great balance is as much to spread life as to curtail it. Barren pools are stocked with fish by kingfishers. Although a fish normally will seldom escape an osprey when once gripped in its talons, under sudden stress the hawk will drop it ; if, for instance, he is beset by a swarm of crows or martins, he may be forced to drop his load in order by flight to save himself from persecution. Many isolated ponds and lakes have been stocked by the agency of these birds. 6 Minor Relations Although disease sometimes sweeps through a colony of birds, exterminating it to the last THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 21 member, it is doubtful if they can communicate the disease to another species. Evidence on this score is meager and wholly unconvincing. It is possible, however, for them to carry the germs of a disease, with which they are not themselves impregnated, from one animal to another. The most outstanding case of this kind is that of the turkey-vulture and the pig. The vulture is a scavenger, pure and simple, and feeds wherever it can find carrion. To one of these birds a pig which has recently succumbed to cholera is as succulent a morsel as one which has died of old age. The vulture can see no difference. Con- sequently, upon leaving the skeleton, it carries off upon its body and feathers a multitude of deadly germs. The result is easy to follow. Upon alighting in a piggery, perhaps miles distant from its recent activities, the vulture unwittingly scatters the germs broadcast, either through excretion or by coming into contact with an object to which they will adhere. If pigs are present they will be- come inoculated. The remedy of course lies with the farmer ; he should bury his dead stock. It has more than once been claimed that birds are partly responsible for the spread of the chestnut blight which of recent years has devas- tated the chestnut forests of the United States. This is not at all improbable. The blight i& a fungus disease which works on the inner, or cam- 22 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIBD LIFE bium, layer of bark. The spores are e'xceed- ingly minute and may be wafted long distances by the A\dnd. Great numbers may also be trans- ported from grove to grove and forest to forest hidden in the feathers of birds, just as the hum- ming-bird carries pollen. Among other minor relationships which may Have a bearing on the general balance is the con- tinual association of some species with large four-footed beasts. For example, we have in America the cowbird which has contracted a habit of following a herd of cattle about a pas- ture to feed upon the flies attracted by the animals. The cowbird, however, seldom or never alights upon the cattle themselves as does that strange black cuckoo of South America, the ani, and the starling-like rhinoceros-bird of Africa. These have an especial fondness for ticks and other body parasites which abound on all beasts free from the curry-comb, and they take a small but valuable part in the life history of the animals they attend. Unfortunately, the rhinoc- eros-bird, with the coming of domestic cattle in- to South Africa, has fallen into disgrace. In tearing a tick from its hold on the back of its host, the bird generally causes a small wound in the tender hide, which soon grows infected. The rhinoceros-bird of late years has also become en- dowed with a taste for blood, and now inflicts wounds where there are no ticks at all. THEIR PLACE IN NATURE 23 Summary To summarize briefly: The greatest function of birds in nature is the utilization of their vast numbers to aid in the maintenance of the great Balance. Their chief mission is to check the spread of insects. They help to hold within bounds the spread of vegetation and at the same time oversee the establishment of plant life in localities where it has been uprooted or is absent. Through their efforts the enormous shoals of fish are limited, and barren pools are stocked. They reduce the number of crop-destroying rodents. They act as food for the support and growi:h of other animals. In other words, birds are efficient policemen, successful executioners, careful husbandmen, and faithful martyrs to their cause. They are efficacious guards of the Balance of Nature; and their work is well done. CHAPTER II THEIR RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 1. General. 2. Harmful Insects. 3. Destruction of Insects by birds. 4. Consumption of Seeds. 5. Effect on Rodents. 6. Destruction of Fruit and Grain. 7. The Kea Parrot. 8. The Cash Value of Birds. General When man first scratched the soil with a pointed stick and deposited in the furrow thus formed a seed of wild grain, he unwittingly was embarked upon an enterprise contrary to the set rules of Nature. By planting and cultivating crops where Nature had not intended them to grow, he had created a disorder in her narrow pathways. The natural conditions of law and order were knocked topsy-turvy. No time was allowed in which to build up a bulwark of protec- tion for the new creations — grain, fruit, and vege- tables contrived from artificial selection; it all happened too suddenly. Insects, weeds, beasts, fungi, and mildew diseases, finding a fresh outlet for expansion, seized these unnatural plants to 24 RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 25 breed upon and grow strong. The great Balance of Nature was upset. Only one course remained for Nature to pursue at this crisis. Her policemen, the birds, were hurried to the rescue. They alone formed a living barrier through which the unruly ones would find it difficult to drive. Unfortunately it took men several thousand years to learn that birds were their friends and helpers. During all that period birds were con- sidered detrimental in every way to the best in- terests of husbandry. Birds stole grain, they robbed the poultry yard, they consumed fruit, and they destroyed the shoots of young plants; they were bad through and through. Of so much man assured himself as an eye-witness, and he did not think to look further. At last came a day when the study of natural history was accorded a place among the sciences. People began to specialize in ornithology. To their amazement, they discovered that all birds were not so black as they had been painted. In- deed, from the analysis of the stomach contents of thousands of individuals, it was found that scarcely any of them were bad. Men learned that for every fowl the so-called hen-hawks cap- tured, most of them devoured a hundred or more rats and field-mice. It came to be understood that the destruction caused by 'those rodents far ex- ceeded the money value of a few fowls. The bal- 26 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE ance stood well in favor of the hawks. Again, it developed that many of the supposedly most voracious grain-eating birds were in reality de- stroyers of the insects so detrimental to the rear- ing of crops. It was proved that other birds accounted for thousands of tons of weed seeds which otherwise would choke the truck gardens. Finally, by compilation of statistics, it was shown that they are responsible for the saving each year of billions of dollars to the world of agriculture. The husbandman does well, then, to hesitate before consigning all the birds on his farm to per- dition. He now realizes their true worth and knows that their beneficial functions far outweigh their evil ones. In the eyes of the modem farmer, their minor depredations assume a negli- gible position wholly discounted in the cause of the greater good. So firmly established are their useful characteristics in his mind that agricul- tural schools all over the world are now laying particular stress on the study of economic orni- thology. He denominates these characteristics under three chief heads: the destruction of in- sects, of weeds, and of rodents. 2 Harmful Insects Insects are responsible for more damage to farm crops than any other known organisms of EELATION TO AGEICULTURE 27 the animal kingdom. To them is due a consider- able amount of disease among domesticated ani- mals. Their rate of reproduction is appalling. Their numbers amount to a figure too enormous for the human mind to grasp. Their appetite is tremendous; in proportion to his size a man to keep on an even basis with some of them would have to consume tons of food at a meal. The flesh-eating larvae of some flies will devour a hun- dred times their o^vn weight of meat in twenty- four hours, and a caterpillar in a day will con- sume a leaf weighing ten times itself. There- fore, insects, unhampered and unhindered, are a serious menace to agriculture in all its forms. Fortunately, as outlined in the previous chap- ter, the insects are circumscribed on all sides by limiting factors which serve to maintain their population within moderate bounds. The world is at odds with them in order to keep the Balance, which the coming of cultivation so nearly upset. As the agricultural expert has learned to know insects, he separates them into three groups, vegetable-eaters, predaceous forms, and species parasitical to his live stock. The last group are controlled by washing and spraying the domes- ticated animals, but the others survive artificial methods of getting rid of them by poison. The vegetable-eaters, as their name implies, include all the species whose food consists of veg- etable matter. These are responsible among 28 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE other things for the destruction of grain, forage crops, foliage, fruit, and the produce of the truck garden. They constitute by far the greater por- tion of the class of insects, and are the chief pests upon which the farmer vents his ire. They include the caterpillars, locusts (grasshoppers), crickets, army-worms, rose-beetles, cicadas (com- monly called locusts), cotton boll-weevils, other weevils, stink-bugs, plant -lice, and a myriad more. These are utterly harmful to agriculture. Maintaining a continual warfare upon the veg- etable-eaters are the second group, the predatory species of the insect world. Although preda- ceous in fact, all do not live directly by capturing their enemies. Many, however, may be likened to carnivorous animals. In their small way the ground-beetles, robber-flies, certain bees, nu- merous spiders, mantis insects, and the like are utterly as savage as the lions and tigers of the mammal world. They stalk their prey, spring upon it, and rend it to pieces as ferociously as any wolf or grizzly bear. Far more efficacious in their methods of destruction are the parasitical insects. They are gifted with the means of depositing eggs beneath the tough skins of their victims. When the eggs hatch, the larvae feed upon the flesh of their un- fortunate host until the latter is so weakened that it dies. Their work is more subtle than the impetuous assaults of their more savage breth- RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 29 Ten, and it sometimes leads to the total subjection of an economically harmful species of vegetable- eaters. An excellent example of this means of limita- tion is to be found in the case of the common cabbage-butterfly. The crafty executioner is a tiny, almost microscopic, ichneumon-fly which, for lack of a common English name, must be known by its generic title, Microga^ter, This insect hovers about in the air until it perceives a cabbage-caterpillar at work upon a leaf. Down it swoops, and the long ovipositor enters the body of the unsuspecting victim. A considerable num- ber of eggs are ejected from the ovipositor into the body of the caterpillar, and the little ichneu- mon-fly departs, satisfied that its chief mission in life has been accomplished. Before long the eggs hatch and the larvae of Microgaster, minute grub-like organisms, begin to feast on the fatty layer beneath the skin. Undismayed, the caterpillar continues to demolish the cabbage, wliile the larvae grow. The day finally arrives for the caterpillar to pupate, to form its chrysalis. It grows sluggish of move- ment in preparation for the event to come. But, unfortunately for their host, the ichneumon larvae feel that they, too, must pupate. The space is too small within the caterpillar to permit the spinning of cocoons, so without ado they eat their way through the skin to the open air, leaving 30 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE their host to die. Mother Micro g aster did her duty well. Not 2 per cent, of the cabbage-cater- pillars escape her inoculation. One might think from the above that the par- asitical and predaceous forms alone could cope with the injurious insects, that the additional drafting of birds for the fray is unnecessary. Such would be the case but for two reasons. In- sects multiply at an enormous rate, and the preda- tory species are greatly inferior in number to the crop-damaging kinds. Just as hawks alone are unable to check the spread of birds, so are insects incapable of holding their kindred within bounds. When one stops to consider the terrible insect scourges which from time to time have blighted large areas of the earth, he will realize that Na- ture is not as perfect a guardian as she might be. Many of her laws do not work at all where man's handiwork is concerned. So slow is she at evolv- ing new creations that there apparently has not been sufficient time to produce a formidable antag- onist to the spread of locusts and army-worms. These insects possibly were active cogs in the machinery for limiting the growth of vegetation before the coming of cultivation, but now they are wholly detrimental to all forms of agriculture. It is a matter of historical fact that locust plagues invariably are accompanied by a swarm of birds. Species whose natural food is quite EELATION TO AGRICULTURE 31 different from grasshoppers will congregate by the hundred and gorge themselves until scarcely capable of flight when those insects appear. Her- ons forsake their marshes, vultures their carrion, seed-eaters their seeds, and ducks their wild celery, when an extraordinary host of grasshop- pers is sighted. Such an event has happened not once but a score of times in the history of the United States; it is common in Africa and other locust-infested lands. The reports of the State departments of agriculture are replete with such instances. About fifty years ago the settlers near Great Salt Lake were reduced to starvation rations through the destruction of their freshly planted crops by swarms of grasshoppers. Then came the gulls. True to their instinct, they gathered from the lake in thousands, and before many days had passed the locusts were no more ; all had been devoured. There stands to-day in Salt Lake City a beautiful monument erected in honor of those gulls. The destruction, however, of suddenly arising insect swarms, though important, is not the chief function of birds in the sphere of agricultural economy. Their mission is to exert a steady pres- sure on insects as a whole, to act as ^^moppers up" for the predaceous species, and at the same time to keep the latter from spreading beyond control. 32 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE Destruction of Insects by Birds In the instinctive efforts of birds to maintain the balance of agriculture, they devour many use- ful species of insects. Their instinct is to fill their crops with food. A robin cannot be expected to distinguish between economically desirable beetles and bad ones. A *^good'' robber-fly and a *^bad'' house-fly probably taste much alike to a kingbird. A night-hawk would rather swallow a tiny Micro g aster than a June-bug. They con- sume all species, beneficial and harmful alike. An examination, however, of numerous bird stomachs has shown that the larger proportion of insects taken is made up of vegetable-eaters. This is not surprising when we stop to consider that the vegetable-eaters far outnumber the other forms in nature. Both are destroyed in propor- tion to their numbers. It so happens that, as in the case of the cabbage-caterpillar, the vegetable-eater is not destroyed by parasites until great damage to crops has been accomplished. The second gen- eration, it is true, is reduced in numbers, but not before the first generation has inflicted serious loss upon the farmer. Birds, therefore, by consuming the caterpillar, though ^dth it a num- ber of parasitical larvae may be destroyed, are RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 33 saving the farmer from a direct money loss. As a matter of fact the agriculturalist is more indebted to birds for the preservation of his growing crops than to any other living creatures. In the predatory insects he finds true helpmajtes who destroy much of the smaller fry; but the rapacious caterpillars, cicadas, and grasshoppers are too large for them to attack. Parasites deal with these forms, but their action is slow and affects the immediate crop little. Virtually all birds will gobble a large insect upon sight. Entire colonies of tent-caterpillars are destroyed before they can denude a tree of its foliage. Broods of ** seventeen-year locusts*' (cicadas) are suppressed by English sparrows, which seem to have a strange fondness for those queer insects. Chickadees, kinglets, and nut- hatches rid our orchards of countless myriads of plant-lice and their eggs. One chickadee alone will consume 5000 eggs of the canker-worm moth in a day. A single covey of quail can clear an acre of potato-vines of their beetles. A few years ago the United States Department of Agriculture set aside a tract of land in Mary- land with the view of determining the exact sta- tus of birds on a farm. It was necessary, in order to get at their stomach contents, to shoot a great number of individuals. In all, 645 birds were killed during the experiment. The results proved interesting. Virtually all the birds, at one 34 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIED LIFE time of year or other, included insects as a part of their menu. Twenty-four species fed on grass- hoppers, twenty-one took leaf-mining beetles, thirty-nine consumed ants, and forty-four had eaten weevils. Most birds took two, three, or all the forms of insects mentioned. About one third of all the food consumed by the 645 consisted of insects, 27 per cent, of which were harmful to crops and less than 4 per cent, beneficial. These were the average birds — robins, catbirds, swal- lows, woodpeckers, kingbirds, crows, and the like — that are found on any typical farm of the east- ern United States. 4 Consumption of Seeds It will not be necessary to enlarge greatly upon the destruction of weeds by birds, as that has been discussed in the previous chapter. To give some idea, however, of the capacity of individuals in that direction, the number of seeds estimated to be eaten by a single bob-white is here set down: ^ Barn-yard grass i. .i 2,500 Beggar-ticks » 1,400 Black mustard 2,500 Burdock > 600 1 Mrs. Margaret Morse Nice in "Journal of Economic Ento- mology"; Vol. Ill, No. 3. EELATION TO AGRICULTURE 35 Crab-grass 2,000 Curled dock 4,175 Dodder 1,560 Evening primrose 10,000 Lamb's quarter 15,000 Milkweed 770 Peppergrass 2,400 Pigweed 12,000 Plantain 12,500 Rabbit-foot clover 30,000 Round-headed bush clover 1,800 Smartweed 2,250 White vervain 18,750 Water smartweed 2,000 In addition to this enormous capacity for aeeds, the bob-white accounts for 145 species of insects. It is calculated that quail consume 1341 tons of weed seeds in North Carolina and Virginia be- tween September 1 and April 30. The mourning dove is accredited with 7000 seeds daily. The work of finches is highly beneficial, that of the winter birds being particularly so. On the Maryland farm above mentioned Dr. Judd found that slightly more than a quarter of the birds killed ate weed seeds. Seeds formed about one fifth of all the food consumed by birds on the farm, and, in the case of some individuals, formed from 50 to 70 per cent, of their food. The number destroyed to the acre in twenty-four 36 THE IMPOETANCE OF BIRD LIFE hours was 46,000, or slightly more than one seed to the square foot. Therefore, the grand total of weeds eliminated in a year from any one farm must be very great. Effect on Rodents We now reach the third province of birds in the cause of agriculture. This is their destruction of injurious rodents. It is not commonly realized what a wide-spread menace these little animals are. Collectively they make an enormous group, comprised of squirrels, gophers, lemmings, wood-mice, field- mice, rats, and many others. Their chief food is roots or green crops, and they are ultra-prolific. All people are familiar with the procreant multi- plication of the common house-mouse, and field rodents are fully as productive. Their prolificness at times is amazing. During ordinary seasons they merely seem to hold 4:heir own in numbers against natural enemies — birds, cats, and small vermin. Even in these days of ** peace'' their reproduction is great, but not sufficient to attract their enemies in greater force. The presence of fifty or a hundred field-mice on an acre of alfalfa does not affect 4;he crop, and makes merely fair hunting for vermin. Pres- RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 37 ently, however, a period arrives when the rodents seem to multiply as if by magic. One litter after another is born, and within a few weeks these litters produce new litters. Perhaps birds and vermin have withdrawn from the neighbor- hood, attracted to another locality by an abun- dance of food, and the rodents are free to breed unmolested. Then, without warning, they sweep in countless hordes broadcast over the land. In this way the lemmings appear every few years in Norway and Sweden. They sweep in incalculable thousands slowly across the country, devouring all vegetation that stands in their path and leaving a brown, barren stretch behind. They pause for nothing, swim broad rivers and lakes, climb mountains, cross prairies, and finally plunge into the ocean. At their first appearance hosts of predatory animals gather. Foxes, wolves, small vermin, and birds of every description as- semble on the trail of the lemmings and fight the retreating horde until it is swallowed by the sea. Even cattle and horses trample the rodent army under foot when it attempts to cross their pasture. Nature orders all her living forces to prey upon the insurgents. The history of Great Britain is filled with men- tionings of *^ plagues of mice" which from time to time have arisen to destroy the meadows and the root-crops. And her history also is replete with 38 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE references to the descent of hawks and owls upon the ravaging swarms of rodents and the annihila- tion of them. Similar irruptions have taken place in the Uni- ted States. In Humboldt Valley, Nevada, a most notable one broke out in 1907 and lasted for nearly a year. Hundreds of acres of alfalfa were ruined, and a quarter of a million dollars' damage was done. From eight to twelve thousand field-mice an acre were estimated as gnawing at the roots. Although at that time large numbers of hawks and owls were being shot throughout the country and the population of the various species had g "eatly diminished, about two thousand managed to gather in the infected region. They consumed millions of mice. Finally, because there were not enough birds to do the work, the farmers were compelled to fall back on poisons to stamp out the pests. This ** plague" happened only fifteen years ago, but even at that late date the farmers of Humboldt Valley did not realize what the birds of prey were accomplishing for them. Although each bird devoured about 700 mice a month, a number of hawks were shot in that very valley that year. The Department of Agriculture at Washington has studied for more than half a century our native raptorial birds (hawks and owls) to deter- mine which species are harmful to the work of EELATION TO AGRICULTURE 39 man and which are beneficial. The contents of about 50,000 stomachs taken from the seventy- five species and subspecies which occur north of the Mexican line have been analyzed. The results show that out of the seventy -five only six forms — the goshawk, duck-hawk, pigeon-hawk, Cooper ^s hawk, sharp- shinned hawk, and the horned owl — are wholly detrimental to the interests of agricul- ture; beneficial birds form the greater part of their diet. It is no longer the fashion to call the red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks poultry thieves. They are now recognized, like the sparrow-hawk, as birds to be courted, not killed. Poultry make up but 1 per cent, of the food of a red-shouldered hawk and ten for the red-tailed species. The screech-owl, barn-awl, and long- and short-eared owls, are given every inducement to remain in the neighborhood of farms. The American sparrow- hawk devours hundreds of insects and field-mice to every song-bird it takes. For each bird of eco- nomic value consumed, the owls, with the sole ex- ception of the great-homed variety, destroy an average of 400 small rodents ; two or three are de- voured at a meal. Quite different are these rec- ords from that of the sharp-shinned hawk, which lives on a diet 98 per cent. bird. With a multitude of similar facts before us it is no longer possible to condemn the hawk and owl families. All laws should be repealed relating to 40 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIED LIFE the killing of these birds, except the incorrigible six, and any other individual caught red-handed in the act of stealing poultry or game. A few States have already put some birds of prey upon the pro- tected list, and the next decade probably will see the entire Union falling in line. The bounty system of paying for the killing of hawks has virtually every\vhere been discontinued. The country has thus been saved millions of dollars both in bounties and in crops. The people are no longer willing to pay cash for what really amounts to increased destruction of their own farm prod- ucts. They have learned through observation, research, and experience that a reduction in the number of raptorial birds is invariably accompa- nied by a wave of noxious rodents. 6 Destruction of Fruit and Grain Now to the shady side of birds in their effect upon agriculture. Many persons have awakened on a June morning to find their pet cherry-tree stripped clean of its fruit; perhaps they have not yet even tasted a cherry of the year. Some have suffered the loss of a fine crop of strawberries; others have entered the garden to pick raspberries and found to their chagrin that there were none. They have every right to feel injured, robbed. RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 41 There can be no doubt concerning the identity of the thieves ; our own eyes have seen them at work. The culprits are birds, the songsters of our lawns — robins, catbirds, brown-thrashers, and others. They are the robbers and should be made to suffer for their misdeeds. It is doubtful if the indignant possessor of a black oxheart cherry-tree which recently has been ravaged by robins pauses to deliberate upon the general economic value of the bird he is about to destroy. The shooting of the thief affords him pleasure, and no wonder : during the cherry season the food of the robin is 44 per cent, cherry ! Even if the man knew that at other times of the year the diet of the bird is 95 per cent, insectivorous, the thought would not deter him from trying to save his fruit. To people who grow cherries and strawberries on a large scale the incursions of fruit-eating birds entail the loss of considerable sums of money. These men, under specially issued permits, are therefore lawfully allowed to protect their crops with guns, but only during the ripening period of the fruit. Some growers surround their orchards with trees bearing fruit of a poorer grade, but of which the birds are extremely fond, and thus are able to save their pocket-books without resorting to lethal weapons. Many strawberry-producers philosophically increase their acreage of berries in 42 TEE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE order that both men and birds may have sufficient. These precautions involve both time and money and must be charged up against the birds. The controversy between poultry-raisers and birds of prey has already been dealt with. The honors are all with the hawks. Growers of grain, however, have a better case, though not so well proved as the case of the fruit men. There can be no denying that birds destroy a certain amount of grain. It is a mistaken idea, though a widely prevalent one, that grain-eating birds always remain grain- eaters, that the main food of crows, blackbirds, and doves is wheat or oats. Nothing could be further from the truth. Blackbirds, however, do sometimes eat freshly planted or ripening grain. It is true that crows consume thousands of bushels of unhusked corn in the South each winter when it has been left in the field by farmers who have not the time or inclina- tion to husk it. Bobolinks as rice-birds annually destroy about two million dollars ' worth of cereals in the South. And grain makes up about 85 per cent, of the food of the English sparrow. But, with the exception of one or two of the above mentioned species, the birds have other economic functions which more than counterbal- ance their depredations. Only thirty-eight indi- viduals out of the 645 collected on the famous Maryland farm had taken grain, and grain made RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 43 only 114 per cent, of the total food consumed. Let us therefore examine more closely into the daily life of some of these so-called noxious crea- tures. Every one has seen blackbirds descend upon wheat-fields in flocks of thousands. The ques- tion is : How much grain do they destroy? The natural food of blackbirds, as has been proved by investigation, is mainly insects. Naturally, upon alighting in a field they will consume all they can find before attacking the crop. For every bushel of wheat they consume, the farmer can feel assured that they have accounted for five bushels of insects. If left alone to feed and propagate, those insects within the next year would have destroyed at least ten bushels of grain. Among the several species of blackbirds, some are more enamoured with grain than others. The grackles fall in this latter class, whereas the cowbird and red-winged blackbirds are almost completely insectivorous. The scientific farmer is now versed in the idiosyncrasies of the differ- ent forms and, as a rule, confines his attention to eradicating the grackles. Even with the grackles, however, the greater part of their food is insect. It is a historical fact that in 1749 in the American colonies, after a wholesale destruction of crows and grackles for a bounty of threepence a dozen, the northernmost colonies had a season of 44 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE complete loss of hay and grain. Hay had to be imported from England. It is also true that the heaviest losses from ravages by the Rocky Mountain locusts have been coincident with or following directly after the destruction of thousands of red-winged black- birds, grackles, and others. About thirty thou- sand birds were slain in North Dakota in one autumn by consuming com soaked in strychnine. It is estimated that these blackbirds would have devoured several car-loads of insects in a month — far more than the bulk of grain they could pos- sibly have destroyed. Bobolinks belong to the group of blackbirds. Although responsible for an appreciable amount of damage in the winter-time to Southern crops, their warfare against the insects in the summer months is of great monetary value to the country as a whole. The Department of Agriculture is thoroughly cognizant of tliis fact, and bobolinks have been placed on the insectivorous migratory bird list for protection by Federal law. There is a proviso, however, which permits their destruc- tion in several States, if discovered attacking grain. This enables the Southern farmer to pro- tect his cereals ; at the same time it prevents fur- ther sale of the ** reed-birds ' ^ which once so cluttered our markets, and the species is no longer threatened with extinction. That *' feathered pirate,'* the crow, is not so EELATION TO AGRICULTURE 45 evil as lie is sometimes said to be. He is, however, an admitted devourer of corn and in the spring has a suspicious fondness for sprouting grain. On the other hand, the crow is in part an insec- tivorous bird, and the values of insects and grain consumed very nearly counterbalanced each other. But, added to his predilection for grain, he is a thief, a destroyer of bird-nests, and an eater of eggs. To offset these crimes he is a scav- enger. It is to be feared that the scales of justice weigh unfavorably against him. In days gone by great damage was inflicted upon grain-fields by the passenger pigeon. Both in the spring and at harvest time great flocks of these birds would descend upon the fields. So in- calculable were their numbers that, though each in- dividual might pick up only a few grains, the total amount consumed was enormous. The passen- ger pigeon has now disappeared, ruthlessly ex- terminated, and in the East and Middle West a sparse scattering of mourning doves remains in its place. What grain they pick up is waste material, gleanings from the harvest. They are weed-eaters, not destroyers of grain; decidedly they are a beneficial species. The same cannot be said of the English sparrow. It is a bird that does not belong, a stranger within our territory, an inveterate con- sumer of small grain. Unlike the majority of finches and sparrows it has no real liking for 46 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE weed seeds. Although it has a particular fond- ness for cicadas and a few other insects, its use- fulness to mankind stops right there. It prefers grain to all other foods, but will take juicy fruit and tender young buds without hesitation. Ap- parently it has a liking for most crops valuable to men. Eight pairs were introduced into this country in 1850 from England, in the hope that they would attack certain insects injurious to cereal crops* The birds did not thrive well, and three years later a second batch was imported and liberated in New York City. This second shipment did' live and multiply. After seventy years the English sparrow stands second only to the robin as the most numerous bird in the United States ! While the destruction of plant buds by the Eng- lish sparrow is of common note, there are a few other species which have this habit. Several of our finches, and the ruffed grouse in particular, are partial to this kind of diet in winter. From an economic point of view, however, the damage done is small. A ruffed grouse requires from 800 to 1000 buds a day w^hen the snow is on the ground, but these are buds of forest trees; their loss is not felt. Noticeable harm, on the other hand, is caused by finches, who snap otf the living buds from cultivated shrubs and fruit. The farmer has attended to the pruning of his stock, RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 47 and any further cutting back reacts detrimentally to the plants. Not many winter finches have con- tracted this habit, and those that have more than compensate for their crimes by consumption of weed seeds. The Kea Parrot In the previous chapter we mentioned the ac- quired habit of the rhinoceros-bird of South Africa of picking at the backs of cattle until blood flows. The birds gained the habit from eating the blood-filled ticks which adhere to the backs of the beasts. In somewhat the same way the kea parrots of New Zealand have evolved a taste for the flesh of sheep. Originally these parrots were entirely insec- tivorous, with perhaps a we.akness for succulent fruit. Shortly after the introduction of sheep into New Zealand, they formed a habit of ap- proaching the sheep-stations during the cold win- ter months in order to pick up scraps and offal thrown out by the herders. When a sheep was killed they picked the flesh from the bones of whatever portion w^as throAvn away. So pleasant did the taste of flesh become that gradually the birds forsook their natural diet of fruit and be- gan to attack the living sheep. It is now their 48 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE habit to alight upon the backs of the victims and with their long hooked bills to burrow through the wool down to the warm flesh. So severe has been the damage wrought upon the New Zealand sheep herds by these aberrant parrots that a price has been placed upon their heads; and they rightfully deserve the annihila- tion now facing them. Fortunately, the species is confined solely to New Zealand, and does not enter into the economic relations of the rest of the world. 8 The Cash Value of Birds It is diffi<3ult to arrive at any close estimation of the cash value of birds to agriculture. Many such calculations have been attempted*, but most of them leave a wide margin for argument. Probably the most equitable comes from Mr. McAtee, of the Biological Survey at Washington. He figures that each bird will destroy each year insects to the value of ten cents. With a popula- tion of more than four billion birds breeding in the United States, their annual savings to agricul- ture would then amount to at least four hundred million dollars. As insects annually damage ag- ricultural crops in the United States to the tune of more than one billion dollars, it can be seen that Thirds have an appreciable cash value. RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 49 Added to this is the value rendered in the destruction of weeds and rodentsi. The daily consumption of weed seeds alone amounts to thou- sands of tons. The value of weeds, however, can only be measured by the amount of labor and time it takes the farmer to eradicate them. The cash thus saved must amount to a large total. Useful birds of prey average about two noxious rodents a day as food. If a field-mouse is ca- pable of inflicting only one cent's worth of dam- age upon farm crops, every mouse-eating bird will consume about seven dollars * worth of mice a year. Allowing to a hawk a life span of ten years, then each such bird must potentially be worth seventy dollars to the United States. In the northeastern States there are at a low estimate two birds residing on every acre of land. We shall call forty acres the average farm, thus allowing eighty birds to each farmer. Every bird, if it lives for ^ve years, is worth, according to McAtee's figures, fifty cents as a destroyer of insects. As a consumer of weed seeds let us suppose it is valued at half that. This will give the birds an average value of seventy-five cents apiece, or a total of sixty dollars for the farm. On every two farms there should be at least one beneficial bird of prey, a hawk or an owl, whose value alone is seventy dollars, or thirty- five dollars to one farm. Added to the above, this gives us a total of ninety-five dollars for 50 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE every forty acres. In other words, the presence of birds enhances the value of land for the ag- riculturist by nearly two dollars and a half an acre! CHAPTER III THEIE EFFECT UPON HEALTH AND THE WORKS OF MAN 1. The Number of Birds. 2. Their Destruction of Insects Obnox- ious to Man. 3. Their Effect upon Dikes and Canals. 4. As Scavengers. The Number of Birds In order to obtain a more than casual under- standing of the etf ect in bulk of birds upon human society, the Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture instituted, in 1914, a bird census. As it was obviously impossible to make a physical count of every feathered individ- ual in the United States, the department selected a number of average tracts of land upon which to make a study. Included w^ere sections of farm land, villages, marshes, forests, and mountains. A definite count of the birds residing there was to be made. Volunteers were called for from the various rural districts and a great many reports solicited from measured areas. The result of this first census was the ac- cumulation at Washington of an enormous amount 51 52 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE of statistics, especially from the northeastern States. The Survey averaged up the various figures and estimated the number of resident birds to the acre. In the following year the experiment was repeated, and it soon became an annual event, care being taken to correlate the yearly reports from the same areas. Soon the Biological Survey was satisfied beyond a doubt that it had hit upon the proper method for taking a census. Each annual report virtually coincided with that of the previous year. The reports were most numerous in the north- eastern States, and so often have the counts there been taken that there can be no hesitancy in vouch- ing for their correctness. Each farm, then, in New England, New York, and New Jersey con- tains about one and a third pairs of nesting birds to the acre. The population of the forests is about the same. Thus in New York State there are roughly sixty million native birds and from seventy-five to eighty million in New England. These, it must be understood, are only the resident population, — ^birds that nest there, — while several times that number pass through during the year on their migrations. Accord- ing to these figures there are several billion birds residing in the United States without counting those which visit Canada and Green- land. The most numerous of all birds in the East is EFFECT UPON HEALTH OF MAN 53 the robin. Although originally a forest thrush, it came into the open fields after the early set- tlers had cleared the land, and it found there a more suitable home than the deep forest. Once established in the clearings, the robin increased in such numbers that it now holds the record for all land birds. Civilization for it has proved a boon. Following not far behind the robin is the alien English sparrow, which at its present rate of propagation will some day not far off head the list. Then in the order named come the catbird, brown thrasher, house wren, kingbird, and blue- bird. The crow stands well up on the list, but raptorial birds, long victims of human miscon- ception, are down near the end, a lowly posi- tion into which gun and trap have forced them. Their Destruction of Insects Obnoxious to Man In agriculture the economic value of birds is based entirely upon the requirements of their stomachs. The same condition holds true for the birds who make our bams and roofs their home. One seldom pauses to deliberate upon the causes which led the nighthawks and the swallows to swoop and streak an erratic course through the air above the barn-yard or pasture. 54 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIED LIFE In a vague way we realize that they are seeking insects, but our imagination ceases to work fur- ther; the actions of such birds are too common- place to be worth a second thought. And yet at that moment those very birds may be con- suming mosquitos at the rate of several a minute or snapping up itinerant house-flies which later would have made our kitchens their home. Five hundred mosquitos have been taken from the stomach of a nighthawk — merely the remnants of one meal. Barn swallows are inordinately fond of house-flies, and, together with the swifts, they destroy thousands of winged ants. One of the most important economic functions of wood-ducks, mallards, and others is their habit of destroying enormous numbers of mosquito larvae which infest the pools where they feed. This fact was learned some years ago and brought into public prominence by Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, coromissioner of public health in Pennsylvania. He estimated that if the birds were present in their numbers of a hundred years ago, they would prove of vital importance in checking the spread of malaria. Market gunners, however, and the general indifference of the public to a promiscuous slaughter of our game-birds have made this for- ever impossible. Wood-ducks at present are not far from extinction, and mallards and green- winged teal are in a fair way toward suffering the same fate. EFFECT UPON HEALTH OF MAN 55 Dr. Dixon, before issuing his statement con- cerning the mosquito-destroying capabilities of ducks, first proved his theory by practical experi- ment. Two ponds, each about 1400 square feet in extent, were selected. In one pond he placed goldfish; the other was reserved for ducks. Within a short time mosquito larvas swarmed in the fish-pond, but none could be found in the pool given over to ducks. Then, to demonstrate the superiority of birds over fish, ten mallards were placed in the fish-pond, and within forty-eight hours the larvae had been eliminated. Dr. Dixon has pro^^ded a practical demonstra- tion of what ducks are capable of doing. For those of our readers who are desirous of eliminat- ing mosquitos from small bodies of water which exist on their land, this provides a feasible method not difficult to follow. Wood-ducks are among the most beautiful of all birds and easy to pro- cure from licensed wild bird breeders. They are ornamental and highly efficient mosquito destroy- ers. Mallards are almost as bright colored as wood-ducks. They breed well in captivity and and are not difficult to rear. 3 Their Effect upon Dikes and Canals A minor though highly important function in some localities is the destruction of crawfish by 56 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE birds. Herons are mainly responsible, crawfish forming a large part of the food both of the grown birds and of their young. Although crawfish destroy a large number of young fish and attack the roots of corn and cotton plants, for which ravages alone they should be condemned, their chief guilt lies in the destruction of levees and dikes. These little crustaceans have inflicted incalculable damage upon the levees of the lower Mississippi. Many serious floods have been the result of their fond- ness for burrowing through mud to the source of water. A dike honeycombed with crawfish- tunnels is no longer safe. Within the last year thousands of dollars have been expended in New Jersey upon a canal whose walls have been under- mined by the persistent creatures. Other thou- sands of dollars are now to be expended in ex- terminating the crawfish. Owing to the former feather trade, herons of almost every sort have suif ered a great reduction of numbers in the United States. There are living to-day only a tiny fraction of 1 per cent, of what there were seventy years ago. The spe- cies which mainly inhabit fresh water areas are particularly fond of crawfish, and in former days, in addition to the preservation of levees, thus saved to the Southern planters many hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of crops. Since the destruction of the birds, however, immense EFFECT UPON HEALTH OF MAN 57 damage has been done to the cotton- and corn-fields of Alabama and Mississippi by the crustaceans. As Scavengers Perhaps the most important minor relation of birds to mankind is their work as scavengers. Although many species function in this way, the best known group is the vultures. So great has been the need in nature of a street- cleaning department that two separate kinds of vultures have arisen. The vultures of the New World are quite different in anatomical structure from those of the Old World. They have evolved along parallel lines ; that is all. The external ap- pearance is virtually the same, their habits are similar, and their functions are identical, but the birds are not closely related. They come from two different stems of the hawk family. In most tropical cities the streets are ten- anted by great numbers of vultures who ** po- lice'' the gutters of garbage which, if left to lie there, would soon pollute the entire neighbor- hood. The meat-markets are infested by them, and they greedily swallow all discarded scraps of meat. So active is the efficiency of the ** turkey- buzzards'' in our own Southern States that, ex- cept in the cities and large towns, dead animals are seldom buried. The bodies are dragged to 58 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE an open" field and the bones are picked free of flesh within a few hours. Bnt vultures do not inhabit all regions; they do not care for too temperate a climate. There crows and ravens take their place. As scavengers these are almost as efficient, but, owing to their smaller size and inconsiderable digestive capa- city, they cannot as individuals consume as much carrion. Crows were at their best on the battle- front during the late war. In America they prove of immense sanitary value by devouring the dead fish and mussels which have been cast upon the beaches by the waves. The grackles also aid materially in this. Gulls as scavengers are quite as accomplished as crows. They are the guardians of our har- bors. Drifting offal proves more alluring to them than living organisms. Every vessel as it puts out to sea is followed for miles by hovering flocks in search of morsels tossed overboard. The waters of New York Harbor are daily swept by their wings as the gulls scan the surface for floating debris. Hundreds of tons of foul gar- bage is thus destroyed which, if left to the mercy of the tides, would be swept ashore to pollute the air mth noisome odors and to breed disease. All of them — vultures, crows, and gulls — ^make the world a cleaner place to live in. CHAPTER IV DOMESTIC FOWL 1. The Game-Cock. 2. Early Domestication. 3. Breeds of Fowl 4. Poultry Farming. 5. Egg Production. 6. The Turkey. 7. The Domestic Goose. 8. The Domestic Duck. 9. The Guinea-Fowl. 10. What is coming? The Game-Cock About the year 479 b. c. Themistocles led a Greek army in a crucial battle against the Per- sians. History relates that just as the opposing ranks were about to close in the final struggle Themistocles cried a halt to his phalanx and com- manded his men to watch a cock-fight then taking place on a small plain between the two armies. The struggle between the two birds was pro- longed. They fought gamely and to the finish. Then, only after one of the gallant combatants lay bleeding on the ground, with its conqueror, exhausted but pluckily ready for a renewal of the strife, swaying drunkenly before it, did the general lead his phalanx to the charge. Whether the anecdote is authentic or not, it is amusing to imagine the effect of a similar cock- 59 60 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE fight on a modern battle-field, interfering, for instance with the struggle for Soissons, Chateau- Thierry, or Vimy Ridge. Spurred on, however, by the brave example of the birds, Themistocles and his men fought a winning fight against superi- or numbers. The entire Persian army was fin- ally routed and slain. The Greeks were naturally jubilant over the result of the battle, and the cocks received full credit for the victory. After the return of the army to Athens the soldiers instituted an annual cock-fight in one of their temples to commemorate the victory, which was regularly attended with proper religious fervor. So refreshing did the spectacle of these fights prove that within a few years the birds began to be matched for sport alone; and thus the cock-fight became an estab- lished form of entertainment in Europe. Cock-fighting in England, next to stag-hunt- ing and falconry, for centuries was considered the sport of sports. Henry VIII set his seal of approval upon it by erecting a large wing — the Royal Cockpit — to his palace, and henceforth cock-fighting became a ^^ sport of kings. '^ It con- tinued as a most popular form of entertainment for several hundred years until the advent of horse-racing placed it in the background. A law was finally passed in Great Britain in 1849 which for humane reasons abolished the sport and pro- hibited the holding of mains. It is now discoun- DOMESTIC FOWL 61 tenanced virtually everywhere on the Continent of Europe with the exception of Spain. It meets with disfavor in the United States, but all Latin American countries hold the cock-fight in national approbation. Early Domestidation Although there is little economic value in the game-cock, the bird is unique because it repre- sents in a domesticated condition the closest ap- proach we have to the red jungle fowl, the wild progenitor of the common fowl. Four distinct species of these jungle-fowl still exists, all in- habiting the Indo-Malayan region of Asia or the adjacent islands. Three of them do not thrive particularly well in captivity, but the fourth, the so-called red species, easily breaks away from a feral state. This species is the forefather of all our domestic fowl. According to the old Chinese encyclopedia pub- lished in 1596, the first of these birds was intro- duced from the West into China about 1400 b. c. This is the earliest authentic mention of the do- mesticated fowl. No remains have been found in the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings, nor is there mention of it in the Old Testament. It was un- known to the old Egyptians and to Homeric Greece. In India the people first began to breed 62 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE the fowl some time between 1200 and 800 b. c. When the domesticated bird was at last firmly established in India, it spread rapidly westward. By 700 B. c. it was to be seen figured on Babylon- ian cylinders. A century or so later it had reached Europe, though, strange to say, not Italy. When the Romans conquered Gaul and later Britain, they found the fowl already naturalized in those two countries. They believed it to be a native of Gaul, and called it gcdlus. From China these domesticated jungle-birds quickly spread to what is now Siberia and were utilized by the nomadic tribes which roamed there. Their first foothold in Africa was ob- tained through the Egj^tians. To America the first birds were brought by the Spaniards, to- gether with the horse. American breeds have since been introduced into the East ; and thus the domestic fowl has completed its westward cycle from the region of its birth. 3 Breeds of Fowl If any wild species of animal or bird is held in domestication for a sufficient number of genera- tions, abnormal characteristics, such as albino- ism, changes in color-pattern, or almost any non- conformity to the original type, are sure to crop out in some individuals. Some species, however, DOMESTIC FOWL 63 are far more susceptible than others to such a change in environment and quickly diverge from the normal. One of these species is the red jungle fowl. Under domestication it soon loses its identity. Owing to this fact, the first people who bred it in captivity, though probably un- familiar with any of the present theories of arti- ficial selection, took advantage of every change of coloring, size, and shape to fit the bird to their needs. Thus new breeds, sub-breeds, and varieties rapidly came into existence. At an early date some European breeds were clearly estab- lished. Columella, the famous Eoman agri- cultural writer, in the first years of the Chris- tian era stated that he ** particularly recommends as the best those sorts [of chickens] that have five toes and white ears.'' Seven breeds are known to have existed in China in 1596, and about the same number were described as Italian by Aldrovandi, in 1600, in his ^^ Natural History.'^ Darwin recognized only twelve breeds, but under the heading of each he named numerous sub- divisions. Since the publication of Darwin's ^* Animals and Plants under Domestication," artificial se- lection has played a greater part in the destiny of domesticated creatures than ever before. Selection has become a definite science, governed by well-established fundamental laws. The re- 64 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE suit has been a great increase in the number of breeds of fowl and an enormous addition to the list of minor varieties and strains. For example, there were in the time of Darwin about seven recognized varieties of Polish fowl; now there are nearly thirty. The following are a few of the fowl now em- ployed in America. We have buff cochins, brahmas, Plymouth Rocks, wyandottes, Orping- tons, Rhode Island reds, chittagongs, Indian games, Malays, black Spanish, Leghorns, blue Andalusians, Minorcas, Anconas, Hamburgs, Houdans, dorkings, Faverolles, and langshans. These are virtually all utility breeds, whereas there remain a great quantity of fancy varieties of minor economic value, and innumerable ban- tams. The origin of some of these breeds and strains is highly complex. Many are the result of crosses and re-crosses and inter-crosses so mingled as to defy any attempt at analysis. Some have been recently created; others are almost as ancient as European civilization. Native American strains are comparatively new, whereas the five-toed dorking, for instance, was introduced into Britain by the Romans. Of all the modem American breeds, the Ply- mouth Rock has proved the most important. The name was first applied to a very much crossed fowl produced in 1850, but this bird was not the DOMESTIC FOWL 65 forebear of the true Pljonouth Eock. The breed probably originated in 1870 as the resultant of any one of six different crosses, all of which produced the same type of bird. The basic stock was the Dominique, the name applied to a fowl of common lineage and blue, gray, and white mot- tled appearance. Upon this bird the following crosses were made: (1) Spanish crossed with white cochin, the result bred to the Dominique; (2) Dominique mated with a buff cochin; (3) white Birmingham on black Java, the produce coming white, black, and Dominique — Dominiques alone bred together; (4) any of the above crossed with the Dominique ; (5) black Java on Dominique ; (6) some of the above crossed with the brahma. Second only to the Plymouth Kock in impor- tance as an American breed is the wyandotte. This also originated in 1870, coming from a cross between the Hamburg and the light brahma. The breeds used in making the Ehode Island red — the third most important American-bred fowl — were the red Java, the chittagong, the red Malay, and the cochin-china. This fowl was the result of long years of selection for a bird which would include the three factors that stand nearest the poultryman's heart: eggs, broilers and roasters. Although a considerable number of strains of Orpingtons are the product of American breeders, the original Orpington was developed in England. The Leghorn arrived from Italy, being probably 66 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE of Spanisli ancestry, though our knowledge of its source is meager. It, however, was introduced into England from the United States. Most Ham- burgs, despite their German name, are English. The brahma is the result of a cross between the co- chin and the gray chittagong, the first cochin hav- ing been imported from Shanghai. Notwithstand- ing the general utility of all these foreign breeds, the United States owes nine tenths of her egg pro- duction to native stock, with the addition of the Leghorn. Speaking from the point of view of economics, the utility fowl has always been the most impor- tant factor in poultry culture. It was, however, only a few decades ago that scientific treatment of the utility bird was undertaken. Until the nineteenth century was well along there were no great poultry farms or production of eggs and fowl on a big scale. Market produce came from the small farmers; poultry and eggs which reached the cities were those left over from the requirements of the farm. But in those former days, while there was little attempt to establish utility flocks of great size, a wide-spread craze was prevalent for creating new and fanciful looking breeds — something that would please the eye if not the stomach. Oddly caparisoned fowl were sought for, birds with crests which burst from the top of the head like DOMESTIC FOWL 67 chrysanthemums, others with cauliflower combs, silky hackles, bright colorings, feathered legs, and hairy or curly feathers. So great was the depth of variation in this do- mestic species that the fanciers obtained almost any form they desired. Almost any weird com- bination of external characters could be found and ^' fixed'' by selective breeding. Davenport states that ^^ there have been reared chicks with toes grown together by the web, without toenails, or with two toenails on one toe; but with two pairs of spurs; without oil-gland or tail (though from tailed ancestry) ; and with neck nearly de- void of feathers. . . . '' Included in his description are fowls with a swelling on the top of the skull which causes large crests of feathers to grow on the head; ill- formed feathers which cover the body like tangled hair; and feathers which grow forward along the body instead of backward. Of the comb he has secured ^'a score of forms: single, double, triple, quintuple and walnut, V-shaped, club-shaped, comprising two horns, or four or six, absent pos- teriorly, absent anteriorly, and absent alto- gether." These are but a few of the possibilities wliich confront the breeder of grotesque types. Therefore it is not difficult to see why, before the cry for more eggs and more poultry was raised by the rapidly increasing city populations, the 68 THE IMPOETAXCE OF BIED LIFE breeder was tempted to perpetuate them. With his meager knowledge he seleeted along the lines of least resistanee. From their earliest begiiniings, however, the United States and Canada, Australia and many colonial possessions of Great Britain, did not take so kindly to the production of fancy fowl as the older countries. With them life was a struggle for existence; the pioneers of a new land could not alYord to waste their energies on materia) which brought no economic return. Their atten- tion was riveted upon the development of the new territory. Fowls as food were a necessity, orna- mental birds a superfluous luxury. With this axiom inculcated in them from their earliest colonial days, Americans have made pro- duction their greatest aim. Therefore it hap- pened that they were the tirst people to place poultry-raising upon a truly scientific basis. New breeds, entirely utilitarian, were established- Old breeds were renovated by the addition of new blood, and fresh strains evolved. From Italy were brought the Leghorn fowl, and, because they were excellent layers, they received popular ap- proval. American breeds became famous, and presently native varieties from the Xew World were flowing across the Atlantic to Europe and England. But the older countries, though slow to begin, soon caught up with the rush of activity under DOMESTIC FOWL 69 way on the other side of the ocean. Great Britain was especially quick to realize that home consumption of poultry was fast outstripping home production. In characteristic fashion she took the matter in hand. ^^ Utility" societies were formed, worth-while prizes offered, and everything was done to encourage the breeding of flesh- and egg-producing fowl. Soon her poul- try industry was greater, in proportion to the small area of territory involved, than that of the United States. The industry proved a gold-mine for Ireland. Poultry Farming It was about 1870 that the world suddenly awoke to its need for more poultry. Since the ad- vent of the breech-loading shot-gun, feathered game had showed a marked decrease throughout Europe. Shops we-re no longer filled with game- birds, and something was needed to take their place. Small farmers attempted to stop the gap with poultry, but the demands of the people greatly exceeded the meager allowance that the peasants were able to scrape together. The value of poultry rose to a premium; a sufdden impetus was given to the fowl industry. The ordinary system of setting a hen to hatch a clutch of eggs had hitherto proved profitable, 70 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE but it was slow. The time had now arrived when small business measures no longer would do. The markets called for poultry in enormous quantities. The result was the introduction of incubators on a wide scale. It was discovered that, instead of the clumsy communal contrivances employed by the ancient and modern Egyptians, machines could be built to serve the purpose of individual pro- ducers at a minimum cost in money and labor. Small incubators became the fashion, and modern poultry-raising thus received its start. The poultry business in fifty years has increased tenfold. Under present methods the chicks are placed in a heated brooder-house twenty-four hours after they arrive from the incubator. The brooder-house usually is a small room with an easily regulated stove in the center. Around the stove is a low, circular hood, raised a few inches from the floor, under which the chicks may gather without getting burned. This is termed the *^ hover," and, if the temperature is too great be- neath its folds, the chicks have access to the farther parts of the room where the heat is less. As soon as the chicks are a few days old they generally are permitted to run in a small en- closed yard adjoining the brooder-house. After their down feathers are shed it is safe, if the owner so desires, to let them roam around a larger yard or even over the farm at will. This, how- ever, applies only to pullets and young stock DOMESTIC FOWL 71 later to be used for breeding purposes. Chicks reared especially for the market should be kept in close confinement in order that all food con- sumed may go toward the production of flesh. They never are allowed to leave the small run- way outside the brooder-house. The earliest age for marketing chicks is when they are about six weeks old. At the present day these young ^^squab-broilers/* weighing about three quarters of a pound, have considerable vogue in America, where they have successfully taken the place of small game. They are equally sought for in Europe, where they are employed for the same purpose. When the chicks are eight to twelve weeks old they become full-fledged *^ broilers.'' These are purely an American creation, the business of pro- ducing them on a large scale having been initiated at Hammonton, New Jersey, between 1880 and 1885, when a number of large plants were opened. Since that date the ^^ broiler'' business has de- veloped into one of the most lucrative phases of poultry husbandry. Probably the most ancient of all ** special" classes of fowl is the capon. It was well known to the early Romans and as highly relished then as now. The caponizing operation is performed on the young cockerels of heavy breeds when they are two or three months old, and thereafter the growth of the bird is very rapid. Fowl thus 72 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE treated wiU reach a weight of ten or twelve pounds, while their flesh remains soft and tender. But capons are a specialty in the world of poultry and, although attaining much popularity in America, they still fall behind the birds known as *^ roasters/* These are individuals graduated from the *^ broiler** stage, which have reached five or more pounds in weight. * ^ Hens * * are fowl which have passed the one-year mark. They are fricassee or boihng fowl. In case a young cockerel is intended to become a ** roaster** it undergoes a process of fattening for ten days to a month before marketing. This fattening, or ** cramming,** of fowl has existed as an art in Europe for two thousand years, but only within the last generation has it been widely undertaken in the United States. Cramming may if necessary be done by hand. The fattening food then is made into a thick paste, which is rolled into pellets and forced down the bird*s throat. The victim thereupon is re- turned to a narrow fattening-pen to await a repetition of the dose due in a few hours. In place of pellets, however, a funnel may be intro- duced into the throat and the food poured down as a liquid. Again, a machine resembling a meat- grinder is sometimes employed. In this case a tube is fitted into the mouth of the caged cockerel, a man turns the crank of the machine, and the food is forced into the stomach. The first system BUFF ORPINv.luN' Courtesy of Lee S. Crandal THE RED JUNGLE FOWL ANXESTOR OF ALL DOMESTIC BREEDS BUFF ORPINGTON CAPON Compare size and shape with the cock above Courtesy of Lee S. Crandal SILKY BANT.\MS — A CREATION OF THE breeder's FANCY DOMESTIC FOWL 73 of cramming is too laborious to be utilized on a big scale; the other two are excessively cruel to the bird. When the fowl is ready for the market all food is withheld for a few hours previous to the kill- ing. The killing is done with a sharp knife by severing the large arteries of the neck through the mouth. A sudden twist causes the knife at the same instant to penetrate the brain, causing immediate and painless death. Plucking is under- taken at once; should there be a delay of only a few minutes the skin becomes strangely soft and easily tears. The average picker works witli great speed and can completely denude twelve fowl an hour. After the small pin-feathers have been removed with a knife and the body singed, the bird is placed in a shaping-trough. This consists merely of two boards placed lengthwise at right angles and nailed. The fowl is placed breast down with a third board weighted and pressing upon its back. The flesh is thus forced downward toward the breast. As it cools the flesh hardens in place, giving the fowl the appearance of owning a full breast, a delusion meant for the eye of the pros- pective buyer. The production of poultry has reached greater proportions in the United States than in any other country of the world. The government census reports of January 1, 1920, showed that there 74 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE then existed more than a third of a billion living fowls in this country. In other words, there were three of these birds present to every person in the United States. Iowa led with twenty-seven million, and in New York there were more than ten million with a value of $15,348,600. Including all the fowl reared and sold during the months before the census was taken, the value of poultry in the United States reached the tremendous sum of a billion dollars. Egg Production Fully as important, however, as the poultry themselves are the eggs they are responsible for. Egg production and how to increase it offers a wealthy field to experimenters and scientific breeders. To heighten the level of average flock performance is the universal aim, and, though much has been accomplished in that direction, there is still great room for improvement. **An egg a day'' has been the war-cry of breeders for more than thirty years, but the hens have yet a long distance to travel toward the attainment of their ultimate goal. Nowadays it is not uncommon for individual hens to lay more than 200 eggs in a year, but a large flock seldom approaches that average. Such an instance has occurred, however. A flock of DOMESTIC FOWL 75 600 Leghorns made a record of 196 eggs apiece! In England a pen of eighteen birds once laid more than 200 eggs to the hen, and at Cornell University a single leading spirit has accounted for 258 in one year ! Although the breeder relies upon selection to produce his prolific strains, he gives a great deal of thought to the proper feeding of his flock. The number of eggs a hen is capable of laying de- pends entirely upon her food. In order to do her best, she must receive a well-balanced ration, one which contains a sufficiency of protein, or muscle- and energy-producing food, together with carbo- hydrates whose function is to make fat and de- velop body heat. These are administered in large enough quantities to counterbalance the elements consumed in restoring waste tissue, the production of an egg, and the generation of heat. To the ration are added plenty of water and green food for maintaining the water-content of the body and eggs, and for serving to keep the bird in proper health and production. Attempts by other means than the selection of good strains and scientific feeding have been made to increase the laying capacity of a flock, but thus far they have met with a small amount of real success. Working under the fallacious idea that the hen, upon missing her egg, will soon replace it with another, people have constructed trap- nests in which the egg rolls away from the hen 76 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE as soon as it is laid. The use of artificial light has also been tried, the object being to prolong the daylight hours. Although some flocks have actually been made to increase their output by this means, the practical value of the system has not yet been wholly proved. Arriving at the consumption of eggs in the United States, we find that it matches that of poultry. There were more than a billion and a half dozen placed on the market in 1919, or about 180 eggs per capita. New York City alone daily consumes between three and four million. The production in the United States, though it did not reach the figures of the previous year, was valued at more than half a billion dollars. The average adult city dweller annually spends about $20 on eggs. But, despite the enormous quantities eaten, there is always a surplus left over. This is em- ployed in a number of ways, for export, canning, drying, and in divers industries. Although for the present exporting is at a low ebb, there are en- couraging signs that it soon will return to a pre- war standard. The canning and drying of eggs, however, continues, and each year hundreds of millions are cared for in this way. Calico-print- ing consumes approximately half a billion each year; book-binding, glove-making, and other leather industries take about half that amount. And before the ratification of the Eighteenth DOMESTIC FOWL 77 Amendment about a hundred and twenty million were utilized in clarifying wine. Eggs are not so abundant in Great Britain as they are in America. There, as with her poultry, the home-grown supply has never been sufficient to meet the demand. Until the beginning of the World War, England was forced to depend largely upon the European markets. So large was the number of eggs imported that they came to about fifty-five for each person in England and Scotland. Eussia was the chief beneficiary of the trade, with an annual export surplus valued at more than $15,000,000. Denmark exported about half that much. The United States did not figure, except in a small way, until 1915, when she took the place of the belligerent European coun- tries. What the domestication of the red jungle fowl has meant to mankind cannot be indicated in actual figures. The fowl has supplied food to countless millions of people through a hundred generations. It has brought a money income and livelihood to untold numbers and has made possible the survival of hundreds of thousands of small farms. Without it the world would have missed a factor of tremendous importance in the advancement of civilization. To-day the com- bined annual poultry products of the world prob- ably exceed the great American war debt in value. They have been estimated at $25,000,000,000. 78 THE IMPOETANCE OF BIRD LIFE The Turkey The descendants of the wild jungle fowl, how- ever, are not the only domesticated birds to which the world owes an everlasting debt of gratitude. There are, among others, the turkey, the duck, the goose, and the guinea-fowl. The first bird, a native of North and Central America, was introduced into Europe about 1530 by the Spaniards. It has been contended that Cabot or another British explorer brought it to England at an earlier date, but documentary evidence fails to prove its presence there before 1541. Be that as it may, the turkey obtained a firm foothold in Europe within fifty years of the discovery of America. There, in Mexico, it had been in a state of semi-domestication for centuries before the arrival of the white man. Again, the uncertain origin of the name *^ turkey^' has also been the cause of considerable controversy. As the bird did not come originally from the land of the Turks, the name cannot have arisen as a common appellation of that country. Some authorities imply it to the resemblance of the tassel on the head of the bird to the red fez of the Turkish costume. Others believe that it may have arisen from the word ^* turquoise,'' in conjunction with the blue excrescences on the DOMESTIC FOWL 79^ neck. A third contingent say that it is a turJceif because the bird is as overbearing as a Turk. The reader may take his choice. Unlike the jungle fowl, the turkey under do-^ mestication does not show a wide range of vari- ability. It thrives under the care of man, but is slow to yield to artificial selection for new types. There are only a few recognized breeds, either in the United States or abroad. The largest of all these is the American bronze, the chief commercial turkey of the States. English breeds are not so large, and the French are still smaller ; but even the great bronze cannot compare with the largest of the wild birds. Wild gobblers- have been shot weighing sixty pounds or more, whereas an extraordinarily large domestic bird will tip the scales at forty-five pounds. There is no more difficult domesticated bird to rear than the turkey. The newly hatched chicks are especially affected by any sudden change of weather. A downpour of rain may prove fatal to an entire brood. Their food also requires close attention. At an older age they are highly susceptible to disease; an epidemic of blackhead or roup may wipe out a flock within twenty-four hours. When fully grown, however, the turkey is as hardy as any fowl. Production of these birds in the United States annually runs into several millions, a majority of which are consumed on Thanksgiving day or 80 THE IMPOKTANCE OF BIRD LIFE Christmas. As a general rule, small buyers collect them in small lots from the farmers. "When sufficient have been gathered together the turkeys are driven in flocks to a common butcher- ing ground, where they are killed and prepared for market. Although they are often driven for days along the highway, their progress is slow and they generally reach the place of slaughter in good condition. Owing to their superior quality of flesh, the demand is great, and the price of turkey remains at a high level. In 1919 there were birds to the value of about $13,000,000 in the United States. 7 The Domestic Goose Although in America the turkey stands second to the domestic fowl in economic importance, it is only slightly in advance of the goose. This, so far as we know, is the most ancient of all do- mesticated birds, for it was known and fattened by the Egyptians 2000 years before Christ. The Romans also knew it well and regarded it as a sacred bird. Nevertheless, its sanctity did not protect it from the Roman epicures, who deemed the liver of a white goose the choicest of all morsels. While never so popular a table dish in America as in Europe, and Germany especially, geese are DOMESTIC FOWL 81 produced here in greater numbers than anywhere else in the world to-day. This is due more than anything else to the great territorial size of the United States, although there is a great demand for upholstery feathers. The bird itself is not highly popular on our tables, and within the last decade the number reared in America has de- creased by one third. Thousands of geese are killed each year in Germany for their liver, out of which is manu- factured the famous pate de foie gras. To secure the pate the birds are fattened until their livers swell to enormous size. The methods employed to obtain this diseased condition are many, and all are unalterably cruel. They need not be spoken of here. Because of the ancient origin of the domestic goose it has proved difficult to trace with absolute certainty its lineage. The ancestor of the Chinese breed has never been authentically identified. On the other hand, evidence points toward the wild graylag as being the forefather of the European breeds. This bird is still taken in the wild state by the Laplanders and lives well in captivity. Virtually all the breeds found in the United States come either from Europe or China. De- spite its long period of domestication the goose has not shown a tendency to vary far from the native type. Thus in all we have merely the large 82 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE Toulouse goose, the Emden, and the African breeds from Europe, and two small Chinese vari- eties, the brown and the white, from the Orient, with one or two other varieties- of minor impor- tance. The native Canada goose shows signs of reacting to domestication, and the time may not be far distant when new breeds of this species will be produced. '8 The Domestic Duck Next in importance to the goose is the duck. With the exception of the Moscovy duck of South America, all our breeds have descended from a single world-wide species, the mallard. Like the red jungle fowl, this bird responds to domestica- tion by wide divergence from the original. So great has been the breadth of variation that it is difficult to believe all our domestic forms arose from a single parent type. Darwin divided them into four great structural breeds: (1) the common domestic duck, in which are included the Pekin, Rouen, the tufted duck of Holland, and the Labrador; (2) the hook-billed duck, an ancient breed and an excellent layer, first observed in 1676; (3) the call duck, small and noisy; and (4) the penguin duck, which probably originated in the Malayan archipelago and is now known as DOMESTIC FOWL 83 the Indian runner. Since Darwin's time many other breeds have been added to the list. By far the most important of all the varieties and strains is the Pekin. Although outranked in parts of Europe by the Rouen and the Aylesbury, it is the commercial duck of the United States. Millions are consumed here and large numbers are produced. Iowa alone, in 1920, reared nearly a quarter of a million. Large duck plants generally are situated near a body of water, — a stream, lake, or bay, — al- though this is not an absolute necessity. The birds begin to lay in December or January and con- tinue until June. The ducklings are hatched in large incubators and marketed when from nine to twelve weeks old. The average plant with one or two thousand breeders will produce from twenty to forty thousand young ducks. As many as ninety thousand, however, have been sold from one ranch in a single season. 9 The Guinea-Fowl Not quite so popular as the duck is the guinea- fowl. A native of West Africa, it has been un- der domestication from the time of the Pheni- cians; but in all these thousands of years it has scarcely altered one tithe from the original form. Unlike other domestic birds it has never lost its 84 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE distrust of mankind. It is a wary creature and if loosed in an uninhabited locality quickly returns to a feral state. Because of its suspicious nature the guinea- fowl is generally left to hatch its eggs and rear its young by itself. The bird therefore does not lend itself to commercial production on a large scale. Nevertheless, there were nearly two and a half million of these half-wild fowl in the United States in 1920. Their numerical in- crease has been large in the last decade, omng to the fact that their flesh is gamy and palatable. In a large way they have taken the place of game in our markets. 10 What Is Coming? Despite all our domestic breeds of chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks, and guinea-fowl, poultry husbandry is only in its infancy. There are many other species to be heard from. In North America the Canada goose bids fair to be the fore- father of a valuable domestic breed. The Mus- covy duck of the Amazon and northern South America already is established as a commercial breed and soon may fight for honors with the Pekin. The South American tinamou and curas- sow, now running wild in their native jungles, are possibilities of the future. With the growing DOMESTIC FOWL 85 enthusiasm for breeding game-birds in captivity now in vogue, what new and economically valuable domestic breeds may not arise? No one can foretell just what scientific methods of breeding and selection will discover a hundred years hence. CHAPTER V DOMESTIC PIGEONS 1. Their Ancestry. 2. Domestic Breeds. 3. Tumblers. 4. Trap-Shooting. 5. Pigeon Flying. 6. Pigeons As Mes- sengers. 7. Pigeons As Food. Their Ancestry The pigeon is one of the oldest domesticated birds on record, and, like the goose, its earliest history is shrouded in antiquity. It was figured by ancient writers shortly after the dawn of history and at the present day is described in the literature of all nations. The first authoritative note concerning this bird comes from the fifth dynasty of ancient ^SYV^y with an antiquity of 4500 years. There we find a pigeon pictured on the walls of the tomb of one of the great princes of that day. Later, Solomon is reputed to have utilized it as a message carrier. Reports of the Olytmpic games were forwarded in the same manner to the Greek cities. Still later, the first official word of the success- ful conquest of Gaul was received in Rome by *' pigeon post.'' Thus, at the beginning of the 86 DOMESTIC PIGEONS 87 Christian era, the domestic pigeon was already an old established breed. Like the barn-yard cock, the pigeon and all its races arose from a single ancestral form, the wild rock dove. This species still exists in Eng- land and the mountainous parts of Europe, ex- tending through Asia down into India. Both the wild and domestic forms live together in perfect harmony, and both are found on the streets of Paris, the rock dove as much at home as its more specialized brother and nearly as tame. The wild bird has been attracted to the city where, while retaining its freedom, it can at the same time take advantage of what the civilization of man- kind has brought. At this point it may be well to define the differ- ence between a pigeon and a dove. There is no anatomical distinction between the two. A line of demarcation does not exist. ^*Dove'^ is the Anglo-Saxon term and ** pigeon'* the Norman, and the latter bears the same relation to the former that ^^ mutton'* bears to ^* sheep." *^ Pigeon" has been adopted for the domestic bird by common usage. That is why it is not wrong to say that the bird descended from a rock *^dove." Darwin was the first to suspect the wild species as the progenitor of the race, and he proceeded to demonstrate his theory in characteristic fashion. Even in the earliest recorded descrip- 88 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE tions, the domesticated bird retained few or no s are graded according to weight, at so many pounds a dozen. Those that weigh a pound apiece are known as ^* jumbos'' and fetch the highest price. Any birds below eight pounds a dozen are culls, and little profit can be derived from them. The breeder naturally selects strains of good flesh- and bone-producing birds. The best of these are the American Antwerps or homers, being prolific, of good size, and gentle breeders. Other excellent varieties are the white Grerman homer, the Belgian homer, the dragoon, the Dutchesse, and the runt, ranking in the order named. Because light-colored squabs bring the highest prices a cross between the white German and the American Antwerp makes an ideal market bird. The young of the dragoon are larger birds, but they take five weeks to rear, instead of four. The runt is the largest of all, a veritable giant, but seldom produces more than four pairs of young a year. The production of squabs reached its zenith in the United States just before the breaking out of the war in Europe. The trade is a local one and the birds must be reared near their market. A sale direct from the breeder to the consumer is the one most sought for, and apparently it is the only means by which the grower can be assured a profit. Before the World War, however, con- DOMESTIC PIGEONS 113 ditions were more favorable. The breeders then dealt with the wholesale market much more than they do now. One small country village in New Jersey sent 86,000 squabs to the market in one year. A single grower in the same county shipped nearly 25,000 that season. Those birds alone were worth $50,000; but a few years later, in 1920, all the farms combined in the United States owned pigeons to the value of only ten times that sum. Squab raising has not proved profitable. CHAPTER VI BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 1. The History of Falconry. 2. Types of Hawks. 3. The Train- ing of the Hawks and Their Work in the Field. 4. Their Food. 5. Modern Falconry. 6. Fishing with Birds. The History of Falconry The art of hunting with specially trained hawks is about as ancient as written history. It is only now, after a lapse of thousands of years in which the sport prospered, that we find it drifting to- ward an eclipse in civilized countries. In the far-off days, when game was plenty and the means of securing it few, men were forced to depend largely upon their bows and spears for food. Arrows were both expensive and diffi- cult to make. While they did very well for large animals, a small bird was scarcely worth the ex- penditure of one, and spears proved ineffective. Yet small birds were delicious food, titbits highly prized when they could be obtained. Men there- fore set their intelligence to work. They devised snares, invented bird-nets, and finally turned to birds of prey to do their killing for them. Later 114 BIEDS TRAINED TO HUNT 115 men taught certain sea birds to fish for them. It is not difficult to conceive how a man — or boy — ^first undertook to employ birds of prey for his own personal profit. He was a man of the open plains, one initiated into the habits of wild hawks. Month after month and season after season he had watched the falcons strike at their quarry high up in the heavens and had observed the baser goshawks swoop and twist in savage pursuit of low-flying victims. As he was possessed of im- agination, the idea gradually grew in his brain that one of those very hawks might be tamed and properly trained to capture quarry for its mas- ter. Without much trouble he snared a hawk, gentled it, and put his ideas to the test. Success attended his efforts — and a new means for ob- taining food had been discovered. In some such way falconry doubtless first had its beginning. As far back as 2000 b. c. we learn that hawks were utilized for taking game in China. Three hundred years later — and possibly before, though the records fail to show proof — the sport had be- come established in Persia. Some falconers of India, where hawking was introduced a short time later, firmly believe that Persia was indeed its home. Such a supposition is quite reasonable; the sport — or art — might easily have had a si- multaneous origin in different parts of the earth. Although falconry was at first utilized as a means for capturing food it soon lost its purely 116 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE utilitarian phase. It was too fascinating a game to be played only by pot-hunters. The Egyptians of the middle dynasties were inordinately fond of it. They hailed it as a sport for recreation hours, though one highly advantageous to the larder. From Egypt it spread to Greece and later to Rome. The half-civilized tribes of Europe accepted falconry in the same manner that China had more than a thousand years before. It was merely a new means of procuring meat, and apparently it remained on that footing for several centuries. The employment of it as a sport did not come into vogue until the time of the first crusades and probably was derived directly from the Saracens, who had already followed it for centuries. At any rate, the first great boom of falconry in Italy and France broke out in the ninth century of the Christian era. In England all men, be they serf or thane, had enjoyed its thrills and spoils, but with the arrival of the Normans it became a ** no- ble'' sport. Henceforth the high social status of falconry was fixed throughout Europe. Only the nobility could fly the best birds, and as a sport it ranked on an even footing with stag hunting. Centuries passed and its popularity waxed rather than decreased. Then, one sorry day, gunpowder and the fowling-piece appeared. The ** kingly'' sport waned into obscurity until now it has only a few followers in Europe. BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 117 Types of Hawks Before entering into a discussion of hawking as practised in Europe during the Middle Ages, and, for that matter, to a small extent to-day, a more detailed description of the proper kinds of hawks should be given. Three well-defined, an- atomically differentiated groups of raptorial birds are employed: the long- winged falcons, the short-winged hawks, and the eagles. Of these the last never reached great popularity in Europe, a fact not only due to the native sluggishness of the birds while on the wing, but because emperors, according to feudal practices, were the only per- sons permitted to fly them. Eagles, however, have attained a certain prominence among many present-day Asiatic tribes. Nevertheless, we shall confine ourselves for the moment to those hawks which have played such a great part in the past history of both England and France. First in order of virtue come the falcons, the long-winged group, including gerfalcons, pere- grines, sakers, merlins, and kestrels. Gerfalcons inhabit Scandinavia, Siberia, Iceland, Greenland, the northern United States, Canada, and the arctic regions. Peregrines are spread largely over the entire world, the duck-hawk being the American representative of these birds so famous in medie- val history. Sakers are subtropical or tropical 118 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIED LIFE forms of the peregrine. The merlin is repre- sented in America by the pigeon-hawk; so alike are the two birds that an ornithologist can scarcely tell them apart. Kestrels also have a world- wide distribution, the American sparrow-hawk being qnite similar to the kestrel of falconry. Useless as a bird-catcher and lacking the dash and courage so necessary for taking game on the wing, the last named species, alone of all European falcons, is of small value to the falconer. In the wild state the natural food of the kestrel consists of grasshoppers and field-mice ; any bird which it by chance captures is taken only by stealth. All other falcons, except to some extent the hobby, — a bird not mentioned above because so closely re- lated to the kestrel, — are diametrically opposite in character. Meat is their food — meat obtained by capturing their warm-blooded quarry alive. To them belong all the dash, the grace, and the swiftness for which hawks are noted. They com- mand the air with their superior flight. Mount- ing sufficiently high, they poise above their vic- tims, then drop with swishing wings and strike with savage talons. When falcons are properly trained, they hurl themselves at the appointed quarry regardless alike of its size, fierceness, or wicked bill. They have no fear for their own safety. Again and again will they return to the encounter until the enemy is driven to earth, de- feated and dying, or they have succumbed to their • BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 119 own prowess. They are courageous, dauntless. Falcons were the birds of kings. Although the short-winged hawks lack the grace and perhaps the speed of falcons, they make up for the loss by fierceness of attack. Their mode of accomplishing this is most businesslike. No time is wasted circling above the quarry. They dart from their perch directly at their victim, literally fling themselves upon it, or give stern chase. The onslaught is less spectacular than that of the falcons but is highly productive of re- sult. Unlike the long-winged species, they do not hesitate to plunge headlong into a thicket or wooded copse in the pursuit. There are no ** stoops,'' startling recoveries, or graceful evolu- tions — only an exhibition of clever aerial dodging, and all the thrills attendant upon a straightaway race. These are the true game-getters, the hawks of the pot-hunters. As indicated by their name, the wings of the short- winged hawks are shorter and more rounded than those of the falcons. These birds belong to a separate group of the great hawk family, known as the Accipitrince. Included among them are the goshawks and true sparrow-hawks. The former, like the peregrines, have a world- wide distribution. The American goshawk is closely allied to the form inhabiting Europe. Sparrow-hawks also are found nearly every- where, the Cooper's hawk and the sharp-shin be- 120 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE ing two American species. The latter is exceed- ingly difficult to differentiate from the European form ; both own long tails, long shanks, and quite similar markings. The sharp-shin, however, is slightly smaller than the sparrow-hawk. The Training of the Hawks and Their Work in the Field In the training of hawks the falconer has to deal with four types of birds, the eyess, brancher, passage, and haggard. The first is a youngster taken from the nest. Branchers are young birds taken in the vicinity of their nest but old enough to fly. Passage hawks are birds of the year trapped during the migration season. Haggards are wild birds more than two years old. These names apply to both long-and short-winged hawks ; thus there may be eyess goshawks and eyess pere- grines. Immediately upon being captured, regardless of whether the bird be eyess or passage hawk, the falconer secures a pair of ^* jesses" to its legs. The jesses are short leather thongs so secured to each shank that, while not interfering with the blood circulation, they cannot be withdrawn over the foot. These are never removed so long as the bird lives, and later in its training mil serve to hold the short leash. If the hawk happens to be BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 121 a freshly caught adult, the jesses are secured to its legs only after the bird has been hooded. When fully fledged, the eyesses at first are al- lowed to fly at liberty, or ''on hack,^' around the place where they hitherto have been fed. Their flying capabilities are thus developed and their young muscles strengthened. It is also the cus- tom, in order to save later trouble, to teach the young hawks while on hack to come to the ''lure," of which more later. After the eyess has remained long enough on hack to develop a taste for chasing sparrows and other small birds, and perhaps has disposed of one or two, it is taken up by means of a bow-net. Its serious training now begins. When disen- tangled from the net it is at once hooded. The hood is a small leather cap so constructed as to fit snugly, but not too tightly, over the head. Light and eyesight are thus cut oif at once, and the bird becomes docile and easy to handle. From the moment the birds are hooded the training of the two classes — eyess and bird of passage* — is alike. The bird is placed on an especially constructed perch in a large, clean, rat-proof room, and se- cured there by a short leash tied to the jesses. It must now be tamed. This process may con- sume much time and patience or scarcely any at all, according to the nature of the hawk. The bird must be continually stroked, first with a feather, then with the hand, until it shows no 122 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE further fear of handling by the keeper. The fal- coner then teaches it to leave its perch for his gauntleted fist, using food as an inducement. When the hawk grows so accustomed to his pres- ence that it will come eagerly to his fist in search of food whenever he approaches sufficiently near its perch, the bird is ready for further training. The falconer is now satisfied that his subject can safely be introduced to the lure. This, as a rule, consists of a padded weight to which are secured the wings of some large bird, like a pigeon or duck. It is provided with short strings by which pieces of meat attractive to the hawk can be tied to it. A long string enables the falconer to drag the lure or to whirl it around his head in much the same fashion that Tom Sawyer whirled his famous rat. Having baited the lure, the trainer takes the hooded bird upon his fist. The hood is then re- moved and the lure tossed to the ground two or three feet away. The hawk, espying the meat and feathers, jumps for them and immediately begins eating. When about half the meat is consumed, the falconer entices her back to his fist with his voice and an especially acceptable titbit of flesh. The practice is continued daily until the hawk is thoroughly inured to the lure and fails to take alarm or offense at the actions of its master. The next step is the employment of a ^^creance,'' a light string fastened to the leg of BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 123 the hawk. Thus secured, the bird is carried off on the fist of an assistant to a distance of about thirty feet and there unhooded. Upon observing a movement of the lure in the hands of the fal- coner it immediately flies back to it. The dis- tance is gradually extended from thirty to one hundred feet and then the creance is dispensed with. Thereafter the flights to the lure are in- creased by short steps up to half a mile or more, with the final result that the hawk will return to the lure from any distance from which it can see or recognize it. The bird is now sufficiently prepared to be broken in on live quarry. This is the last step before introducing it to field work. If, for in- stance, the special quarry is to be a partridge, a living specimen must be secured and flown from the end of a short string. The hawk, when un- hooded, will at once take wing and bear the part- ridge down. Then, before being brought back to the fist, it should be permitted to make almost a full meal from its first victim. Two or three other tethered partridges should be sacrificed in the same manner before the hawk is fitted to fly at wild game. The first trip in the field is the most important phase in the training of a hawk. Unless it kills the first bird at which it is flown, it may not bother to fly at another. If it kills at once, con- fidence is established in its own prowess and 124 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE nothing but practice is needed for perfection. Thus, matters should be arranged to insure a kill. To make certain of success a trained* bird-dog is necessary, one which will stand fast on a point. In the case of a falcon, the bird is unhooded when the dog crouches to a point. Immediately upon being freed of the hood, the falcon takes to the air and, following the instinctive habit of its kind, rises to a good height, or ^ ' pitch. ' ^ While the hawk is circling, the falconer approaches the dog and stands ready to flush the partridge at the moment the falcon gains the proper position to strike at the birds. An instant later the quarry go up with a whir. The falcon, singling out a victim, falls li"ke a streak of gray light from the blue vault of the sky. The selected partridge falters on its course, then goes down, struck dead in mid-air, while the remainder of the covey vanish over the brow of a neighboring hill. Turning quickly, the destroyer plunges after its stricken victim. Later in its work, when the falcon gains more skill, the trainer permits it to gain a greater pitch than at first before he so much as turns the hunting-dogs loose in the field. The bird, educated now, circles and hovers above the pointers until they locate a covey. Then, if the first field happens to prove barren of quarry, the falcon follows the dogs on to the next without re- turning to the wrist of the falconer. BIKDS TRAINED TO HUNT 125 Hunting with short-wing'ed hawks is under- taken in a somewhat different manner. The bird is not unhooded until the quarry has actually taken wing. The dogs come to a halt, the falconer cautiously draws near; he flushes the quarry and then only does he unhood the goshawk or sparrow- hawk on his wrist. The hawk immediately sights the partridge, launches out after it, and with a rush of wings strikes it do\vn. Both partridge and hawk fall to earth together. Unlike the falcons who cause death to their quarry by a blow from their half -closed talons, these hawks kill by driving their claws into their prey. They * ' bind ' ^ to it and never let go. The preferred hawk of falconry is the female. She is stronger, better able to cope with large quarry, savage, and therefore prized by falconers. Unless otherwise specified, hawks are generally designated as belonging to the feminine gender. They are perfect amazons, and it is to them that the names *^ peregrine, *' ^^ merlin,'' and ^'gos- hawk'' are applied. If the less noble male is to be mentioned it is merely termed a ^^tierceP' or a **jack" or a ** musket.'' Two hawks flown to- gether, not necessarily a pair, are termed a ^^cast." 4 Their Food Although the training of a hawk has been some- 126 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE what enlarged upon, little as yet ha& been said of the food of the captive birds. And yet this is one of the most important factors in their training. Too much care cannot be given to this item. Although the birds are not by nature delicate of constitution, they quickly show the effects of im- proper feeding, especially during an active cam- paign in the field. The staple diet is of course meat, but meat in different forms, depending upon the species of hawk to be fed. A peregrine, being a large, rug- ged bird, subsists best on beef; but that is too coarse for the dainty merlin: she thrives better on sheep 's heart. All hawks in the wild condition daily consume a large amount of fur, feathers, and bone together with the flesh of their victims, and this roughage is ejected later through their mouths in the form of oval pellets. Therefore, instead of soft beef, every third day or so the peregrine gets a pigeon, the leg of a fowl, or part of a rabbit with the fur on. Small birds and mice are fed to smaller hawks. If the falconer fails to discover any pellets, or *^ castings, '' beneath the perch within a few hours after the roughage has been devoured, he knows that the hawk is in poor condition. The smaller hawks, like the merlin and sparrow- hawk, should be fed twice a day, at seven in the morning and five or six in the evening. The per- egrine and goshawk, unless they are eyesses, re- BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 127 quire sustenance only once daily — in the evening. These birds will consume about half a pound at a meal — the merlin considerably less because of her smaller size. Cold meat should never be used, though it must not be heated above blood temper- ature. Finally, when taken out to hunt, the hawk should be hungry in order that she will be keen for the chase. When a hawk strikes down her quarry, she is allowed only a mouthful or two — just sufficient to whet her appetite for more. It is seldom that the falconer allows her to make a full meal in the field, unless the day's hunting is over; the game generally goes into his bag. The quarry of the merlin and sparrow-hawk in the wild state is small birds. They are there- fore employed for taking larks, blackbirds, mag- pies, and sometimes partridges. Peregrines are flown at partridges, grouse, pheasants, rooks, crows, ravens, herons, and other large birds. They will even attack kites, another species of hawk, and the ensuing struggle is a true battle royal. Goshawks excel upon ground-game such as hares and rabbits, and are highly efficient at the capture of grouse and pheasants. Eagles are flown in parts of the world other than Europe, their specialty being larger game — gazelles, small deer, foxes, boars, and even wolves. The quarry list of falconry is indeed a formidable one. 128 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE Modem Falconry Although only a few French, Dutch, and British enthusiasts now take pleasure in the sport, there was a period when it was considered as necessary for a member of a noble family to be familiar with all the intricacies of falcony as it was for him to be conversant with horsemanship. In those days — from the tenth to the end of the seventeenth century — the sport had a firm hold upon civilization. So powerful was its grip that many stringent laws, which seem wholly unjust and childish to us now, were enacted by various monarchs to govern its performance. A code was worked out which was adhered to by every one, royalty and serf alike. Special hawks were allotted to the various degrees of rank. To the king went the use of the gerfalcon; to the noble- man, the peregrine ; to the yeoman, the goshawk ; to the priest, the sparrow-hawk; and to the servant, the useless kestrel. A king naturally could utilize any hawk or falcon beneath his own in rank, but it was not permitted to the nobleman to fly a gerfalcon. Severe penalties were imposed upon any per- sons who transgressed the law. During the reign of several English sovereigns, among them Henry VII and Henry VIII, the stealing of a falcon was BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 129 punishable with death. Elizabeth was more lenient ; any one then convicted of this form of stealing was merely fined and imprisoned for a period not to exceed seven years! The prison term, under James I, however, was reduced to one month and the fine was set at forty shillings. Similar strin- gent laws were in efi^ect all over Europe, and re- mained so until late in the seventeenth century. Then, they gradually relaxed. By the opening of the nineteenth century the theft of a hawk in Eng- land had been placed in the same category as the stealing of a fowl and was dealt with in the same manner. While the practice of falconry as a fine art has virtually disappeared from Europe at the present time, it still has great popularity in other parts of the world removed from the glamour of modern civilization. Although unknown to the American aborigines, it is enthusiastically carried on in parts of the Old World wherever there exist nomadic tribes. As with the ancients, it is not merely a sport with these people, but a pleasant method of obtaining food. By means of desert falcons the Arabs procure gazelles and hares for the larder, an example which is fol- lowed by the inhabitants of Barbary and Morocco. The roving nomads of Siberia seldom travel with- out their hawks. In Turkestan falconry is re- garded as the most popular sport of all. The 130 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE princes of India frequently enjoy it; falconry to them is still a high art. And it has a considerable vogue in the interior of China. The hawks employed by all these Oriental peoples do not differ from those utilized a few centuries earlier in Europe, nor do the methods of training vary in any notable way. Added to the falcons and short-winged hawks, however, is a third bird, the eagle of the emperors, which under the name of berkute holds great favor in Turkestan and Siberia. The eagle is trained in the same manner as other hawks and is flown like a goshawk. Owing to its great size and savage temperament, it is kept hooded at all times except when flown at quarry. It is capable of inflicting serious damage upon its keeper if once aroused; there- fore the falconer employs the greatest cau- tion in his handling of it. AVhen the eagle is crouched upon the body of its victim the falconer approaches gingerly and pops a hood over the bird's head before he dares take it upon his fist. Foxes and even wolves are common prey of this savage bird; but when a berkute binds to a wolf the battle may prove disastrous for the eagle unless the falconer hastens to the rescue. He rushes up and attempts to despatch the wolf with a blow of the club he carries, before the wolf can manoeuver the eagle within reach of its jaws. Fox hunting is not so dangerous, and by this BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 131 means some Siberian tribes obtain the pelts which they use for barter at the trading-posts. Fishing with Birds Among all the hawks mentioned as being at some time or other trained to hunt for a human master, there is one species which we have failed to discuss. This is the osprey, more commonly known as the fish-hawk. Although the records are not clear on the subject, it appears that this hawk was once utilized in England for catching fish. The sport, however, did not gain popu- larity. The osprey could not be induced by train- ing to deviate from its instinctive habit of flying to the top of a tall tree or post immediately its talons had closed upon its prey. Therefore the priests, who supposedly were responsible for the attempt to modify the habits of the hawk, soon gave it up as a bad job. There is, however, another sort of bird, the cor- morant, which is trained for this purpose. The art of cormorant fishing originated in the Far East and later was introduced into Europe, where for a short time in the seventeenth century it found favor. But its popularity there was short- lived ; the sport was attended with little or no ex- citement. Now for a view of the art in practice one must travel to Japan, China, or Formosa. 132 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE Fishing with cormorants is not a complicated business. The birds need scarcely any training. A young cormorant is captured and tamed by allowing it a sufficiency of fish as food. When the owner believes it old enough to begin work, he deposits it in a basket and carries it to the fishing ground. A metal ring is then slipped over the narrow head of the bird and down the neck to the shoulders. One foot is secured by a long string and the cormorant is tossed into the water. The fishing has begun. Following its natural instinct, the cormorant immediately begins to dive and swim beneath the surface at great speed. Presently there sounds a slight splash near the boat; the bird appears with a fish gripped crosswise in its sharp bill. With a gulp it is swallowed, and the cormorant plunges once more beneath the water. These actions are repeated over and over again until the small fish, prevented by the metal ring from entering the stomach of the bird, distend its throat into the form of a pouch. The owner now decides that his cormorant has caught all the fish it can hold and pulls it aboard by the string, hand over hand. Before seizing the bird the fisherman dons a mask to protect him from any sudden thrust from that needle-like bill. Then, grasping the cormorant, he strips its throat of its contents, depositing the fish in the boat and tossing the bird overboard again. When BIRDS TRAINED TO HUNT 133 sufficient fish are collected, the cormorant is treated to a few, and the fisherman journeys to market with the remainder of his catch. Although this form of fishing is undertaken no- where but in the East, it is a sport that any one can take part in if he will take the trouble of catch- ing and taming a young cormorant. A pelican would doubtless prove more productive of excite- ment, if it could be trained to return to the fisher- man the moment the fish becomes locked in its pouch. This bird plunges upon its prey from the air and would have to be taught to return to some sort of lure. It would be amusing to make the trial. Thus far none of the sports mentioned above have gained a foothold in the United 'States. Experiments have been carried on with the sharp- shin and Cooper's hawk with promising results, and there is little doubt that these birds will prove as tractable as the Old World sparrow-hawk. We have also our own peregrine and goshawk, with the pigeon-hawk to take the place of the merlin. Falconry is well worth a serious trial. CHAPTER VII BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 1. Song-Birds. 2. Talking Birds. 3. Birds That Give Warning of Danger. 4. Birds as Decoys. Song-Birds Birds taught to execute some little trick or song have, since the dawn of civilization, taken the position of favored household pets. Mere tame- ness, although tolerated because of the attrac- tive disposition of the bird, or beautiful coloring, or the fact that it gives the trainer a complacent feeling of having conquered a wild creature by kindness, does not lead to violent enthusiasm for the bird. What is most fancied is one which, like a bullfinch, can whistle *^ Yankee Doodle,'' or a parrot that will recite the tale of ^*01d Mother Hubbard/' or a crow that performs ludicrous tricks with its bill like the famous bird at the New .York Hippodrome. A bird of this sort will be cherished by its owner and proudly exhibited at every chance. In the same way, a common barn-yard duck means nothing to a duck shooter, but if it has de- 134 BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 135 veloped into a first-class caller it will prove his most valuable asset in a ducking-blind. While the beauty of a captive bird may appeal to our esthetic sense, its practical value is measured by its performance. Most birds, however, when captured and tamed da develop some accomplishment and thus afford an excuse for their taking. These achievements are of many kinds, including singing, talking or mimicking, and acting as barometers of danger and as decoys and hunters. Birds that sing and talk are the ones which are most commonly taken for the cage, and of these the best known are the canaries and parrots. The canary is a native of the Azores, Madeira, and Canary islands. Early in the sixteenth cen- tury it was introduced into Europe by sailors and was received with enthusiasm because of its song. It would be difficult to recognize in the dull-plu- maged little finch of those days the forefather of the modern vivid yellow bird. The wild canary is far from beautiful. Above it is dark olive, the only color to be seen being a slight greenish- yellow tint on the rump and breast. The sides of the breast are gray with dark stripes, and be- neath it is dirty white. Despite the low-toned hue of its body, its drab and uninteresting appearance, the exquisite voice of this tiny songster flew straight into the hearts of the people. The bird seemed to thrive in cap- 136 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE tivity; once tamed, it easily fell under the spell of domestication. Generations of caged canaries passed. Gradually their primitive coloring be- gan to show a change; yellow replaced the dull olive, gray, and white, and there evolved our vivid-hued songster of to-day. There now exist thirty or more canary breeds, some of which show as wide dissimilarity from the wild type as our domestic fowl from the jun- gle-fowl, or a fantail pigeon from a rock-dove. Green, yellow, and cinnamon canaries are com- mon. They are to be found in all shades of orange, and pure whites are not exceptional. Some breeds are mottled, others are streaked above and below with browTi or black ; several are slim of body and long-legged, and a few are dumpy and short-legged. Many are merely balls of fluff and frills, while others own crests like Jacobin pi- geons. But the breeder's art was not entirely concen- trated upon securing variation in form and color. The trainers worked unceasingly upon the voice of the canary and succeeded in adding to its qual- ity. The natural song of the bird, already mldly sweet, has been enriched with new notes. The soft familiar trill which so pleases the ear is a Xjroduct of man's selection, not of nature's. The best songsters are now bred in Germany, near St. Andreasburg. When the yomig cocks have completed their first molt — females do not BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 137 sing — they are placed each in a separate cage and left in a partly darkened room. An old bird, known as a ^^ schoolmaster^' and selected for his perfect voice, is then introduced into the room so that the youngster, through an inborn instinct for imitation, will learn to copy his song. In place of the schoolmaster, or as his aid, a musical in- strument termed a *^ bird-organ, '^ on which many of the required runs can be produced, is some- times employed. The bird-organ is used almost entirely in the United States as a means of train- ing, not because it is more efficient than the schoolmasters, but because they were difficult to secure. Germany has a monopoly on the latter just as she once had on the dye industry, and jealously guards them against export. There- fore, although accomplished songsters have been reared in America and other countries, the most unique examples still come from the land of schoolmasters and whistling bullfinches. The voice of the bullfinch in the wild state is a ^* clear piping call and a curious little squeaky song'' delivered with much vim. It has none of the soft sweetness of the wild canary. But as the bullfinch is a native of German groves and thickets, and easily tamed, the people there have taken it in hand. It does not breed well in cap- tivity; therefore the young birds are caught wild and, being clever imitators, are taught to whistle various tunes. Despite the bullfinch's naturally 138 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE unmusical voice, it proves to be an excellent performer when trained. Under the impulse of imitation it learns to sing and whistle clearly and sweetly, this ability making it much sought for on the market. Both these birds — the canary and the bullfinch — are imported into the United States in great numbers, canaries of course greatly predominat- ing. Each bird occupies a small cage about five inches wide by six inches deep and tall. Seven cages are slung on a strip of w^ood, a unit of seven being known as a ^^ stick'' or *^row." These are placed in large wooden frames tightly wrapped in canvas for shipment. The fronts of the frames are open, with a canvas curtain draped in such a manner that the birds have sufficient air but cannot see or be frightened by what is going on about them. Upon reacliing their destination, the cages are piled one above the other in great tiers, and the birds graded according to quality of voice. They are then ready for shipping to the retail dealers who sell them to their final owners. The World War interfered seriously with the importation of foreign song-birds and the trade has fallen off to a large extent. Before the war an annual average of more than 350,000 canaries was introduced into the United States from abroad; now scarcely half that number arrive BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 139 each year, and only a thousand or two bullfinches. The trade, however, is slowly reviving. In 1921 several shipments, each of five thousand or more canaries, arrived in New York from various Euro- pean countries. The prospects of 1922 are even brighter. Although bullfinches and canaries are by far the finest trained song-birds in existence, there is a multitude of untrained cage-birds whose native voices are as sweet. The notes of the moriche oriole have no rival for timbre ; the song of the bulbul has caused Persian poets to weep in ecstasy. Without going further into detail, we have the babblers, the European blackbirds, the solitaires of Mexico, the song-thrushes, the night- ingales, the sky-larks, the weavers, the Southern troopials, the minas of the East, and an almost inexhaustible list of others, any one of which would make a German *^ schoolmaster'^ tremble for his honors and put a *^ bird-organ'' to shame. But these birds are rarities and difficult to pro- cure. 2 Talking Birds Following close after song-birds in popular praise are those species which can be taught to imitate the human voice. Every person is fa- 140 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE miliar with parrots and what they are capable of saying; therefore we shall pass lightly over this group. Three families of parrots are suitable as cage- birds. Of them, those termed true parrots, — including macaws, parrakeets, amazons, gray parrots, and love-birds, — ^make the aptest pupils. The best pet and most accomplished talker is the gray parrot from Africa, although not greatly superior to the South American amazons in either of these capacities. As sailors* pets the amazons are well known, both in fiction and in true life. Macaws, though noisy beyond reason and mis- chievous, can be taught to talk clearly, as can a few parrakeets. The sole claim of love-birds to popularity, however, is their affectionate dispo- sition. They are silent. Cockatoos belong to an entirely different group of parrots, being inhabitants of the East Indies, Australia, and several neighboring islands. Al- though docile pets they are easily excited, and when that occurs their cries can be heard for miles. It has been rightfully said that they are more fond of screaming than talking. The vo- cabulary of the average cockatoo consists of a word or two, but once in a while a fair talker mil be found among them. As a whole, however, they cannot compare with the amazons, to whom imitation is second nature, and may be classed with the third family of parrots, the lories, BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 141 which make excellent pets but will not talk at all. A native power of mimicry is the essential up- on which rests the ability of birds to repeat words of human origin. Their whole training is based on imitation of sound, not of action. Clever body manoeuvers played with the wings, feet, or bill are the outcome of a habit instilled in them by the trainer through continuous repe- tition until the movements have become instinc- tive. The performing crow at the New York Hippodrome has been taught by repeated trials and an innate love for carrying objects in its bill to catch rubber balls tossed in its direction, a trick that it could not learn by imitation. But, despite a facility in acrobatics, it is impossible to teach a crow to say more than a few words. It is not naturally a clever imitator of sound. But the power of mimicking is not everything. Although a bird may be able to mimic it will not necessarily do so without some inducement. An amazon parrot says, *^ Polly wants a cracker," first, because it likes to make the sounds, and, secondly, because it has learned to associate the sounds mth food. The captive bird quickly learns that it can make capital out of its art of mimicry. Its tendency soon is to imitate the sound of everything that goes on near the cage. It finds that the more it mimics the better care it gets. Then, as time passes, the im- itation of the human voice becomes a fast-set 142 THE IMPOETANCE OF BIED LIFE habit. It no longer is coupled with the idea of food. The bird now repeats words freely. Its shrill screeches have been replaced by other sounds. It becomes talkative. Parrots, however, are not the only birds that can be taught to imitate human speech. The hill minas of southern Asia and the East Indies are equally proficient in the art. These birds, although hardly larger than a thrush, will talk in an extraordinarily strong rich voice, and their enunciation is more perfect than that of the gen- eral run of parrots. They are wonderful sing- ers, loquacious imitators of other birds, and al- together are valuable additions to the aviary. Crows, jackdaws, and magpies are also talkers of more or less distinction. While they never attain the proficiency of parrots, they can say a few words. Gifted magpies have been taught to repeat sentences of considerable length. 3 Birds That Give Warning of Danger There are certain types of birds which have been utilized by man to warn him of the ap- proach of danger. Among these is the guinea- fowl, which might well be said to take the place of a watch-dog. When disturbed it awakens the neighborhood with a series of piercing, grating calls which jar unpleasantly on the ear and will BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 143 arouse the soundest sleeper. Guinea-fowl are often maintained on poultry farms merely for the sake of the protection they afford against night prowlers. During the World War the pheasants in Eng- land developed into fairly responsible sentinels against Zeppelin attacks. The birds seemed particularly sensitive to far-off explosions and a raid generally was heralded by a concerted crow- ing of cocks. It is even asserted that the crow- ing sometimes preceded the actual attack by from fifteen minutes to half an hour. When the voices of the pheasants were heard raised in alarm, the air-men looked to their machines and the gunners manned their anti-aircraft pieces.^ Canaries also are employed to detect danger, though in a very different manner. It has long been recognized that they are about fifteen times as susceptible to the effects of carbon monoxide and other poisonous gases as are human beings. Thus, for generations these birds have proved of the utmost value in mines for detecting the first traces of noxious fumes. During mine disasters they are used by rescuing parties to give warn- ing of renewed danger. Canaries were utilized in the World War as a part of the equipment of the sappers in their tunneling operations. They saved many lives, usually at the expense of their own, through 1 Gladstone, "Birds and the War." 144 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE their ability to detect subterranean gases. Cages containing the tiny songsters hung in dug- outs and trenches, at any point where the enemy gas might penetrate, and thousands of canaries succumbed in order that the soldiers might live to carry on. Birds as Decoys The proverb that *^a bird in the hand is worth iwo in the bush'' is a truism to the trapper. No one realizes better than he that it is one thing to have a bird already locked in a cage and a wholly different thing to persuade another to enter after it. Thoughts of the same character flash through the brain of the sportsman who crouches gun in hand at the edge of a slough while a flock of teal or black duck whistles by out of gunshot. He is bitterly aware that, but for one thing, several of those birds would have been his; a solemn vow is then and there registered that he will never go duck-shooting again without that valuable article. The failure of his hopes rests upon the lack of live decoy-ducks. The inestimable worth of decoys for luring water-fowl into snares was early recognized by the ancients, who made a practice of netting ducks in large numbers. Many centuries later, with the entrance of the fowling-piece into the BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 145 field of sport, it was learned that decoys were of more importance than ever in the taking of wild- fowl. As the birds grew fewer they became more wary, so wary in fact that the sportsman without decoys to aid him in enticing the ducks within gunshot had about as much chance of ob- taining one as the fisherman has of catching a trout on a bare hook. While shooting was in its infancy, it was the custom to employ only live decoys. But as the sport grew more popular, as the shot-gun im- proved and became sufficiently cheap for any person to own one, the demand for live decoy- birds increased in proportion. Soon the supply failed to equal the call for them, and thus it hap- pened that wooden images gradually took their place. It is safe to say that now more than 90 per cent, of all duck decoys are products of the manufacturer. On the other hand, so popular has become the shooting of water-fowl and shore- birds, so numerous are the devotees of the sport, and, furthermore, so advantageous to the sports- men are call-birds, that live decoys are still uti- lized by tens of thousands. In the case of shorebirds, such as yellowlegs and black-breasted plover, species which own the most trusting dispositions of all game-birds, only manufactured decoys are resorted to. But this type of game stands in a class by itself. Its dominant instinct, that of gregariousness, 146 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE proves its undoing. It flies without hesitation to any group of objects which resemble in any respect its own kindred. The sight of these decoys, together with the imitative whistles of the hidden gunner, seem to arouse in the birds an unquenchable desire for companionship that blinds them to all danger, even the reports of guns and the falling of other members of the flock. The writer has seen large clam-shells and pieces of shingles successfully employed in place of well modeled tin or wooden decoys. Far more wary are the ducks, geese, and other water-fowl. So deep-seated in them is native suspicion that time and again they will pass by apparently unnoticed the great flock of wooden images thoughtfully arrayed in front of the hid- den blind by the hunter. If, however, he has staked out one or two call-ducks on short tether- ing strings in the midst of the decoys, the sus- picions of the wild birds are allayed by their quacks, and they fly in to destruction. Garrulous drakes are used as call-ducks, gen- erally mallards or black ducks, these being the most easily tamed. They undergo no training before being taken to the blind. A good drake will soon learn its business and refuse to ex- change confidences with every passing bird. The caller which quacks at a fish-hawk is not es- teemed by the sportsman. He requires a drake which confines its attentions wholly to ducks. BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 147 Live decoy-ducks are used principally against members of their own species which otherwise are exceedingly difficult to secure on open water. They are seldom deceived by artificial decoys. Of late years, however, it has become a practice in certain States to bait small shallow ponds and sloughs for black duck and mallard, a trick which the wary birds cannot penetrate. Com is scattered freely over the bottom and, when the ducks have grown accustomed to congregating there to feed, they are shot from blinds as they arrive. Live birds are employed almost entirely to as- sure the ducks that the way is clear, and so suc- cessful has this method of slaughter proved that it has been followed by a rapid decrease in the black duck and mallard population. Bags of fifty and sixty birds to the gun are not uncommon on baited pools. Unless it is soon replaced by a more sportsmanlike system of shooting, there will be very few ducks to try it on in the near future. Another method much in vogue a generation ago and still somewhat used for taking ducks is that employed on a few inland lakes of the Middle West. A small body of water is selected for the purpose, one containing a quantity of natural food which has drawn thither from year to year great hordes of ducks. A post is driven into the mud at the center of the lake and from it, 148 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE secured by a pulley, an endless line is run under the water to the shooting-stand on shore. To the line are then fastened a score or more tame ducks by a light string attached to their feet. The operation of the contrivance is simple. A man on shore pulls the ducks by means of the pulley out toward the center post, where they begin to feed on grain already scattered for them. Not many minutes elapse before their ac- tivities attract some passing wild flock which immediately settles around them. The line is now gently manipulated. The tame birds drift slowly toward shore followed by the wild ones. Presently they arrive within gunshot of the blind. The gunners leap to their feet ; there is a wild splashing on the water, the wild ducks take wing, and the shooting is on. iStill a further method of decoying water-fowl within reach of the gun is by utilizing tame geese which will fly out to a flock and lead them to the shooting-stand. This is a modern form of sport coming into great popularity along parts of the New England coast where wild geese are still numerous in the shooting season. So fascinating is it that the sportsman often forgets to slay the victims, in his interest in the performance of his trained flock. The flying of geese is undertaken in somewhat the following fashion: some distance from the shooting-stand, and also at the edge of the estuary, BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 149 stands a pen containing perhaps fifty thoroughly domesticated and tame Canada geese. The pen is connected with the stand by a telephone. When the gunners sight a flock of geese which will pass not far away, they at once notify the pen. The domesticated birds are thereupon released by a man stationed there for the purpose. They take wing, and, attaining a considerable height, fly honking noisily to form a junction with the wild flock. A garrulous greeting awaits them, and then, after paying their respects, they head straight for the shooting-stand. The wild geese naturally trail on behind, so that in a moment or two all splash into the water within easy range of the blind. But the manoeuvers of the treacherous fifty are not yet completed. They are hungry. And a few yards to one side of the stand, twenty feet or so back from the water-line, is the spot where they are always fed. What is more, grain should be lying there already scattered, waiting for their crops. Without loss of time the fifty crowd ashore and waddle to the grain, while the timid wild birds remain behind as easy marks for the gunners. This sport holds a fascination for sportsmen which no other form of shooting sport has ever had. It is unique and spectacular. The tendency is growing among its followers to consider the wild geese which have been drawn into the toils as secondary to the fun of operating and training 150 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIED LIFE the tame birds. It is quite possible that geese flying of the future may develop into a non-shoot- ing sport. Gulls and terns, as well as some other birds, are extraordinarily inquisitive by nature, a failing which in past years has proved a serious adjunct to their downfall. In the dark days when the millinery trade in native bird-skins flourished, market gunners took advantag^e of this idiosyn- crasy to fill their bags. A wounded tern or gull was necessary for the game. It was pegged out on the sand by a string, where its wild flutterings could be seen by passing birds. Before many minutes passed dozens would be hovering curi- ously over their disabled companion, filling the air with discordant, questioning cries. This was the psychological moment for the gun- ner, and he lost no time in acting. The more birds he brought do\vTi, the more it seemed would congregate in the vicinity. They paid little or no attention to the sound of gun-fire. Their atten- tion was concentrated only upon the strange sight of their brothers scattered in such disorderly array on the beach. The gunner if he desired could kill a thousand without driving the others away. Generally he was content with a hundred, for those were all he could skin in a day. Decoy-birds are also utilized in trapping song- birds and hawks. In the case of the latter a shrike, the deadly enemy of all hawks, is some- BIEDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 151 times used to give warning of the presence of a bird of prey, which is then lured into a net by the fluttering of a .«.^ L.Z >. ? '^ff^fiitflf, if z FEATHER INDUSTRIES 177 trich skins, the natives stalked the birds, and slew them with poison-tipped arrows. They were snared and trapped, and ridden down on horse- back. And as a result they became wary, scarce, and difficult to secure. The natives were able to obtain enough plumes for their own use, but Europe went begging. As the supply decreased, the price of ostrich-feathers soared to unheard-of heights. White men took up the profession of ostrich hunting, but met with inditferent success. The European world was faced with a famine in plumes. Then it w^s that a Dutch settler in South Africa made the discov- ery that ostriches could be bred on a commercial scale in captivity. The first serious attempt to tame the birds took place in 1863, but several years elapsed before eggs could be hatched and chicks reared under the care of man. Once the fact was established, how- ever, that such a thing was possible, ostrich farm- ing took a boom. The value of plumes was higher than ever. The rearing of ostriches soon became a recog- nized industry of South Africa. Great sums of money .began to be realized and many Boer farmers grew rich. Within twenty years after the first birds had been domesticated there were nearly a third of a million of them in the colony. By 1913 the number of ostriches had risen to ap- proximately nine hundred thousand, with an an- 178 , THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE nual production of a million pounds of feathers, worth roughly $13,500,000. In many respects ostrich farming resembles poultry raising. The eggs are incubated by one of two systems, officially termed ^ ^ natural " or * ' arti- ficial.^^ In the former method, as implied by its name, the eggs are hatched by the birds them- selves, just as they are in the wild state. The nest consists of a large depression in the ground scooped out by the breast-bone of the bird. Its construction is simple. The ostrich merely squats down, with its breast thrust forward, and revolves slowly until a hollow of the required size is formed. The female then lays an egg every other day until the clutch of twelve or fourteen is com- plete. The eggs are heavy and large, averaging about three and a half pounds apiece, and their contents are equivalent to about thirty chicken eggs. The male performs almost the entire duty of incubation. If the sun is very hot the eggs are often left covered during the day with a thin layer of sand ; if the weather is inauspicious the female rests upon the eggs from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon — not a minute longer. The male sits regularly for the remaining sixteen hours of the twenty-four. But the natural method of hatching eggs is not the most economical, and has virtually everywhere been displaced by the artificial, or incubator, sys- tem. The ostriches are allowed to excavate a nest FEATHER INDUSTRIES 179 and deposit their eggs there. As fast as the eggs arrive they are removed from the nest, a proceed- ing which causes the bird to lay steadily until perhaps fifty, sixty, or even one hundred eggs have been produced, instead of the normal baker 's dozen. The eggs are then enclosed in specially constructed incubators and maintained at a tem- perature of 99 to 100° F. for a period extending over forty-two days. The chicks are already the size of ordinary do- mestic fowls when they emerge from their thick shells ; their grayish bodies are mottled with dark spots. Growth is rapid, — nearly one foot in height a month, — and when adult size is reached their heads will rear seven or eight feet from the ground. By that time they weigh three or four hundred pounds. At four years of age they com- mence to breed. Commercial ostrich-plumes are those feathers which sprout from the tail and the misshapen wings. Each wing produces forty-two major quills, a number which is never exceeded, though many attempts have been made to increase it by artificial selection. Plucking commences when the birds are six months old. The feathers then are of an inferior quality, small, and termed ^^ spa- donas^' from their spear shape. It is the prac- tice in South Africa to clip the birds every six months thereafter, both sexes producing plumes. At plucking time the ostrich is driven into a 180 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE V-shaped pen, where a hood is slipped over its head. The sudden darkness produces a docility in the bird, which may then be handled with im- punity, without fear of a vicious kick from one of its powerful limbs. Each plume is separately examined, and those wholly opened out are clipped off with a pair of shears, leaving the quill stubs embedded in the flesh. Any young feathers not fully unfolded, or in which the blood still flows, are not touched. If by chance they should be clipped, the fresh feathers which later replace them will most likely be deformed, a condition not at all desirable. The operation of plucking is entirely without pain to the ostrich: no arteries are severed, no nerve is injured; the dead chitinous barrel of the plume alone suffers. Two months after the opera- tion the quill stubs, now replaced by young blood- feather shoots, may be extracted without the slightest notice being taken by the bird. South Africa, however, though the original home of the ostrich under domestication, is no longer the sole seat of that industry. Ostrich farming is nov^ practised in many countries ; in various parts of Africa, in Argentina, and in the United States. It has met with wide-spread popularity in Egypt and in British and French Nigeria, and the Su- danese are learning more modern methods. For centuries the Sudanese have reared wild caught chicks, but until recently they have made no at- FEATHER INDUSTRIES 181 tempt to breed the birds in captivity. The Ar- gentine farms have brought wealth to their owners, and for a time the American farms were prosperous. Twenty-two ostriches were introduced into California from Cape Town in 1882, to form a nucleus for the industry in the United States. Forty-four more arrived in 1890, and later — in 1901 — twelve Nubian birds. From these seventy- eight birds, then, came virtually the entire Amer- ican stock of several thousand. Success followed the first attempts at breeding. Within a few years thriving farms had been estab- lished in California, Arizona, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Florida. By 1910 there were ap- proximately 6100 breeding ostriches in the United States. Of these about 80 per cent, were o^vned in Arizona, 17 per cent, in California, 2 per cent, in Arkansas, and the remainder in the other States. A breeding pair at that time was worth from $700 to $1000, specially fine birds sometimes bringing that much apiece. Young ostriches were less valuable. The market value of plumes va- ried, but in good years from thirty to fifty dollars ' worth of feathers would be produced by one bird, and as high as ninety dollars by exceptional ones. It is the custom to pluck American ostriches every nine months instead of twice a year as in South Africa. About a pound of feathers is ob- tained at a clipping. These are roughly sorted 1S2 THE IMPORTAXCE OF BIED LIFE on the fann and shipped in bundles of one hundred to the New York market. 2 Manufacture of Ostrich Plumes Upon arriving at the factory the plume bundles are opened and the feathers are tied by their stems to strings in pjiquets of three. These pi- quets undergo washing in ordinaiy soapsuds, be- ing scrubbed on common scnibbing-boards. When clean they are placed for several hours in a vat of red dye maintained at a temperature of 150^ to ISO- F. Then, if black plumes are desired, they are immersed in black dye for twenty-four hours. Dyeing for other colors — pink, orange, light blue, or cardinal — consumes less time — generally not more than an hour. When the proper hue is obtained the piquets are introduced to a drying room where thev bans: for six hours in a warm temperature. They are next thoroughly threshed out to loosen and soften the webbing. The strings are cut away from the piquets and the feathers are accurately graded according to size. Trimming follows and finally a re-grade as to excellence. Single feathers are seldom employed as plumes. Only those of the very finest quality can be used alone as such, and they of course fetch the highest prices. The majority of commercial plumes are FEATHER INDUSTRIES 183 developed from the fragments of several feathers, as great proficiency has been attained in this art by the feather manufacturers. A good feather is selected and the vane is pared down or split in two. Other feathers, similarly treated, are super- imposed upon it with their flattened vanes touch- ing. The bundle of shafts are then sewed to- gether at one-inch intervals and ^'stemmed"; i. e., a wire is sewed in. An average *'made" ostrich- plume thus is composed of three or four feathers, five or six being utilized in the manufacture of the best quality. After the sewing is concluded, the plumes are curled and twisted. The latter process is accom- plished by manipulating the feathers in the steam arising from an ordinary kettle. When they harden they will retain their new shape. The curling is done with a pair of curling-irons simi- lar to those used on the hair. . Despite its early prosperity, however, the time came a few years ago when ostrich farming re- ceived a severe set-back. The World War broke out in Europe. Fashions began to change and ostrich-feathers fell into disrepute. They were cast aside for simpler styles. Gradually the market weakened, then broke. With the loss of a market, down slid the feather industry into the depths. American ostrich farmers were panic-stricken ; there was no longer a sale for their product. The tide of fashion had 184 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE set away from them. Birds which a year before had brought a thousand dollars a pair now w^ere eagerly offered for one tenth of that sum — with no buyers. The price level for breeding birds sank to twenty-five and thirty dollars apiece. In desperation the farmers killed the ostriches, gave them to ^^zoos/' did everything they could think of to rid themselves of the feed bills that now threatened to swallow the profits of the last ten years. By 1920 only 231 birds were recorded as remaining on the once flourishing ostrich-farms of the United States. The curtain of the industry had rung down. Non-Existence of Egret Farms As a plume-bearing bird the ostrich stands in a unique position; it is the only one which has re- sponded in any way to domestication. A wild creature may be tamed to exhibit no sign of fear in the presence of men, but very few will breed in captivity. The **zoos'' are filled with birds prized for their plumage, egrets, birds of para- dise, crowned pigeons, and a score of others, all of which seem to enjoy life in a large cage, but they will not rear young there. Thus, so far as their plumes are concerned, these birds are commercial nonentities. And for that very reason, because they will breed only in the wild state, have they n i w m 1 ■ 1 ^^H ^^ 'i^ ^St* ^^H 1 ^^H mk 1^1 ^^^^^H ^^■l ^b^ ^^^H^^^H ■ i <^-j H^TW N ^ ^^^1 Lp -t^'YrHI -J MKm^^M ^^HH w^M. ttS^ ^^^■■■Hli ^ EHI^HIHHH Courcesy of Dr. W. T. Hornaday 1050 PLUMES OF THE BIRD OF PARADISE, SEIZED BY THE U. S. CUSTOMS OFFICERS Courtesy of the N. Y. Zoological Society Photograph by Elwin R. Sanborn A PAIR OF NUBIANS FEATHER INDUSTRIES 185 been slaughtered and some of their species brought to the verge of extinction. Every few years or so strange stories come to our ears of regions where there are egret farms, where the birds are successfully reared for their plumes on a commercial basis. First there is such a farm in India ; then it has moved to Ven- ezuela, or to Egypt, or to Brazil. The plumes are said to be clipped from the backs of the snowy birds in much the same manner that feathers are plucked from an ostrich. No pain or flow of blood is reported to attend the operation, and the birds thrive and multiply vigorously under the influence of domestication. Such tales are pure figments of the imagination. An egret farm, in the sense implied, has never ex- isted and never will. It cannot. The birds do not breed freely in captivity. In fact there is only one possible record of a pair rearing young in a ^^zoo,'^ and there have been thousands main- tained in ** zoos'' during the last hundred years. The stories have persisted, however. They are warped translations of the truth enlarged upon by plume hunters and those who are interested in seeing the plumage trade revive. A few rooker- ies exist in southern Brazil where great quantities of cast-off plumes may be picked up near the de- serted nests at the close of the breeding season. But these are fragmentary, frayed, and worn bits of feathers, of little or no commercial value. 186 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE Again, certain landowners in Venezuela make a practice of leasing out the shooting privileges of their property to feather hunters. The egrets are not farmed. They are shot and killed in the breeding season for their plumes just as thou- sands have been shot and killed elsewhere. The plumes are torn from the backs of dead birds, not clipped from live ones or picked up in the muddy lagoons and marshes. Egret farming, as a commercial venture, does not exist. Commercial Downs and Their Uses Although the market for ornamental plumes has now shrunk into insignificance, there are cer- tain other types of feathers which always will have great commercial value. These are the upholstery feathers, the do^vns of commerce which go to fill mattresses, pillows, and quilts. Only the small breast feathers of the duck, goose, and swan were utilized in former times, but to-day, so populous has grown the world and so insistent is it upon household comforts, enormous quantities of feathers from the barn-yard fowl are used. These last, however, are employed in making mattresses and low-grade pillows, whereas other downs, especially down from the eider-duck, go intc) the lighter quilts and pillows. About a century and a half ago great multitudes FEATHER INDUSTRIES 187 of eider and other down-bearing sea-ducks existed along the northeastern coast of North America. So numerous were the birds that they drifted in enormous *^ rafts/' some a hundred acres in extent with several thousand ducks crowded into an acre, not far from the coast of Labrador, which was their home. And during the months of July and August they drifted helplessly, quite unable to fly. These months were their molting season. Unlike most other birds, ducks molt all their flight feath- ers at once, and thus can escape from their ene- mies only by the speed of their swimming. Wonderful tales were brought back to the colo- nies by whalers and sealers of these helpless **• rafts'' and the ease by which the birds could be taken. The northern waters were reported a's being so strewn with discarded feathers that the contents of all the feather-beds in the world might have been scattered there. The ducks were powerless to escape, and their crippled condition invited attack. It is not surprising, then, that the American colonists took quick advantage of the opportunity to reline their bed-sacks. Massachusetts became the center of a young but thriving feather indus- try. Enterprising merchants chartered ships to send north after the drifting multitudes. Dozens of vessels spent each summer cruising off the Labrador coast. ^^ Feather" voyages proved profitable undertak- 188 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE ings to every one concerned but the ducks. Upon a cry from the masthead that ducks were in sight, the nose of the vessel would be turned toward the ill-fated ^^raft.'* When close enough, tha bow would shoot into the wind, and there would follow the splash of a number of small boats taking to the water. There could be no escape for the vic- tims — scoters, eiders, and Labrador ducks; they were surrounded, raked by small cannons loaded to the muzzle with fine shot, clubbed to death with oars, and netted by the ton in large fish seines. Ten thousand could be slaughtered in a day by the crew of one vessel. The small feathers were stripped from, their breasts and the bodies were tossed overboard to feed the fish. Untold millions met death in this way within the span of a very few decades. There of course could be only one outcome to this promiscuous slaughter. The great flocks were broken up ; the birds were scattered and ex- terminated. Eider-ducks became a rarity along the American coast; by 1878 the Labrador duck wsas entirely extinct ; ^ and the scoters alone re- mained. Before the opening of the last century ^ ^feather" voyages had been discontinued as un- profitable. The hundred-acre ^ ^ rafts ^^ were gone forever. A word now concerning eider-down. For its 1 The last recorded living specimen of that species was shot in 1878. • FEATHER INDUSTRIES 189 bulk it is one of the lightest commercial substances known, having been utilized for thousands of years, first by savages and then by civilized men, in bed making and the manufacture of winter clothing. It is so elastic and firm that a quantity which when compressed might be covered with two hands will serve to stuff an ordinai;y quilt. In softness it is far superior to all other downs. Eider-ducks inhabit most northerly regions, seldom traveling farther south in winter than the edge of the ice-cap. They are still plentiful along the coast of Norway, at Nova Zembla, in the Shet- land, Orkney, and Faroe islands; and Iceland is the home of hundreds of thousands. Although they have been severely treated and virtually annihilated on the Labrador coast, eider- ducks have been protected in other regions and in some localities have become partly tame. Such is the case in Iceland, where they form a means of livelihood for thousands of people. The eggs are rich in food constituents and palatable; the flesh is edible; the down is a source of income; and the skins, with the feather side turned in, constitute warm undergarments which protect the human body from the rigors of a cold winter. Eider-ducks, therefore, are one of the chief eco- nomic resources of Iceland. The birds are guarded there as carefully as if they were domesti- cated fowl, and the island is famous the world over for its eider-down industry. 190 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE The finest down is obtained from the bodies of living birds, the feathers of dead birds being of inferior quality because of the loss of a certain softness and elasticity. The plucking is not done by hand, but by the birds themselves during the nesting season. The nest consists of a low struc- ture of seaweed, lined with the soft feathers pulled by the female from her breast, and in this down are buried the four or five large pale-green eggs. When the entire clutch has been laid, the down hunter cautiously approaches the sitting bird. If she fails to depart of her own accord, he care- fully removes her and helps himself to all the down and all but one egg. Upon returning to the nest, which she will not discard because of the remain- ing egg there, the fem^ale deposits a second clutch, having first, however, relined the cavity. This again is despoiled. Although by this time the breast of the duck is almost depleted of feathering, she does not appear in the least discouraged. By hook or crook she manages to glean a third covering of down for the third clutdi and settles comfortably to hatch the eggs. The down hunter arrives on the scene. He is now more circumspect in his actions. He takes a peek at the denuded breast of the bird, examines the quality of the down covering the eggs, and decides whether she can stand a fourth plucking. If not, the nest is left undisturbed until the eggs are hatched and the ducklings have FEATHER INDUSTRIES 191 departed. Then the inferior down is gathered and cleaned. And all through the nesting season the drake duck swims placidly out in the offing, eat- ing, sleeping, and preening his feathers, quite ob- livious of the tribulations of his mate. The feathers on his breast remain intact. The eider-ducks of Iceland have grown so used to the presence of people near their breeding grounds that they will recognize the men who tend their nests. They dislike strangers, but will go so far as to allow themselves to be handled by those whom they know. The Icelanders treat them with the gentlest care, constructing artificial nests and warding off danger when possible. The birds return each year to the same spot and will breed in the close vicinity of buildings. Some have even been known to rear their broods on the turf roofs of inhabited cottages. By kindness and care they h.ave been led into a state of semi-do- mestication. But, as has already been mentioned, eider-ducks are not responsible for all commercial down. So great is the demand for this substance that they, in truth, are able to supply only a very small fraction. The downs ranking next in quality are those obtained from the goose and swan, the former bird producing thousands of tons annually throughout the world. As with eider-ducks, the feathers from live geese make the best down, and as the geese do 192 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE not line their nests, they have to be plucked by hand. It has been the custom for thousands of years in Europe to rear geese solely for their feathers, and the peasants derive a considerable income from this source. Some goose farms con- tain thousands of birds, the plucking of whicli takes place &ve times a year. While the plucking of live geese continues to a lesser extent to-day than it did a hundred years ago, it is still done on a large scale, particularly in Europe. The birds, however, are now more generally reared for the food market, and, despite its inferior quality, the bulk of goose-down is derived from the bodies of these. The duck and goose farms of the middle United States thus annually supply the upholstery industry with hun- dreds of tons of feathers as one of their by-prod- ucts. In the same way the poultry farms find a ready market for the pickings of the fowl. Before they can be used, all down feathers have to undergo a cleaning process, first to free them of foreign matter and second to extract any greasy substance which may remain and which might cause an offensive odor. In chicken feathers only the barbs are utilized, the feathering being stripped from the shafts and the shafts dis- carded. This type of down, because of its lack of springiness, is employed mainly in making mattresses. FEATHER INDUSTRIES 193 Minor Feather Industries Aside from the downs and ornamental plumes, there are still other uses to which feathers are put which have a considerable commercial status. Although their bulk is small when compared to the upholstery downs, the industries for which they form a necessary adjunct are numerous. Until the appearance of steel pens, quills were the only implements that could be utilized for writing, if, of course, we except the fine brushes of the Far East. Their day extended from the sixth to the beginning of the nineteenth century, and even now quill penholders with steel nibs have a certain popularity. In former times, how- ever, when feathers were the only pens, their quality was a matter of the utmost importance to the writer, and great care and forethought were given to their selection. Feathers of the crow, turkey, eagle, or hawk served the purpose well, but the best quills came from the wings of geese. The left wing only was depleted, those feathers curving outward and away from the writer, and only the outer "QYe flight quills were taken. Of these the second and third were considered the best. The plucking was done in the spring, at the com- 194 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE pletion of the molt, but before the feathers had time to become frayed by usage. The barrel of the shaft was softened in a sand-bath at a tempera- ture of 130° to 180° F. and immediately scraped clean under pressure. The outer skin was then easily removed, the inner shriveled up, and the shaft was freed of all greasy material. While it was still hot and soft, names, trade-marks, or ornamentations could be stamped upon it. This process is still used. In the manufacture of feather dusters the wing- and tail-feathers of turkeys and other domestic fowls are utilized. A superior quality of duster has been developed from the feathers of the American ostrich. Again, feathers are used in the manufacture of Chinese and French feather flowers, artificial butterflies, various toys, darts, camel-hair brush- holders, toothpicks, and fishing flies. While in- dividually these minor industries are unimpor- tant, collectively they represent an added inter- est to the commercial world of a great many mil- lion dollars. And when we consider as one the plumage deal- ers, the ostrich farmers all over the world, the eider-down hunters of Iceland and elsewhere, the plume manufacturers, the upholsterers, and the people employed in the minor feather industries, we have no inconsiderable list. It is not difficult FEATHER INDUSTRIES 195 to conceive that the feather business, in one form or another, plays a well-defined part in the trade economics of the world. CHAPTER X GUANO 1. Where Found. 2. Guano Birds. S. Historical Significance of Guano. 4. The Search for Guano by the United States. 5. Peruvian Guano. Where Found The name ** guano'* is applied by farmers to any commercial fertilizer which contains a bal- anced ration of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash for growing crops. In the stricter no- menclature of fertilizers guano is a highly nitro- genous material containing animal matter, which when broken down by contact with the soil makes available the necessary chemicals for plant growth. For example, thousands of tons of dried and ground fish are annually produced for fertilizer under the title of guano by the menhaden fisheries on the Atlantic coast of the United States. But ** guano, '* in its true meaning, can only be applied to excrement, and mainly to that of birds.. Small amounts are from time to time discovered in caves where the droppings of bats have accu- mulated to form a thin layer on the floor, but ]96 GUANO 197 this guano is of little economic importance. By far the greater bulk of the material is produced in the great rookeries of sea-birds which here and there dot the surface of the earth. Some of these rookeries no longer exist, for the birds changed their breeding-ground perhaps a thousand years ago, but their excreta remain in thick beds many feet deep. Here, after centuries of leaching, the nitrates have gathered in large pockets in the form of crystals, or what is better known as saltpeter. In Chile and Peru there are enormous accumulations of these nitrates, com- mercially termed Chile saltpeter, which are noth- ing more than ancient guano deposits altered by time and the elements. Although excrement is the basic element of guano, dead fish, dead birds, rotten seaweed, and all the refuse which accumulates about a rookery are included in its make-up. Together these make an evil-smelling compound, but one highly bene- ficial to plant life when applied to the soil. The fresh product is naturally high in soluble minerals. If laid down in a region of moist cli- mate, constant leaching follows, causing it to lose much in valuable fertilizing compounds. The potash and phosphoric acid, being already in a soluble state, are dissolved off by rain-water, and the presence of lime leads to a decomposition of the organic material and a subsequent release of nitrogen in the character of ammonia. Therefore, 198 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE only guano from arid, rainless localities retains full strength for any prolonged period of time and is accounted as the best quality of fertilizer. The dry coast of Peru is perhaps the most ideally situated region in the world for the pro- duction and preservation of the raw material. In addition to an abundance of food for the sea- birds in the ocean currents which sweep the coast, some sections have virtually no rainfall, others less than an inch per annum. A few miles off the lower central part of the coast rise three small rocky islets, known as the Chincha Islands, which are the home of millions of guano-producing birds. Rain is almost an unheard of phenomenon, and the guano accumulated there in an absolutely pure state for many centuries. Farther north lie other islands, the Lobos group, which, though situated in a slightly damper climate, are also famed for their deposits. It was from these two groups that for many years came the world's main supply of natural guano. But Chile and Peru are not the only countries in the world where guano, or its products, are ob- tained. It is found in lesser quantities on the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. The West Indies have produced a small amount. Shark Bay and 'Swan Island have supplied some to Australia. There are deposits on many islands in the Pacific. Guano is also found in Algoa and Saldanha bays near Cape Colony, on Ascension GUANO 199 and Ichaboe islands off the west coast of Africa, and at Kuria Muria in Arabia. Low-graded de- posits have been found elsewhere. Guano Birds Before dicussing fully the merits and historical significance of guano, we had better inquire more thoroughly into its origin. As the Chincha Is- lands are the most important source of the prod- uct, we shall take as an example the conditions there met with. A few leagues off the Peruvian coast a great ocean current sweeps north, bearing with it im- mense schools of small fish termed anchovies, and countless myriads of tiny shrimp-like crustaceans. Between the current and the mainland stand the three rocky Chinchas, where are congregated one of the most formidable arrays of birds the world has ever seen. They are mainly cormorants, gannets, and pelicans, mth a sprinkling of jack- ass-penguins, gulls, and skuas. These move over the water in swift-changing clouds, darting, plung- ing, and hovering incessantly, or resting on the water in great rafts which stretch into the dis- tance. The fish are the attraction, and all day long the birds pursue them until, gorged and logy, they finally fly on heavy beating wings back to the 200 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE cliffs which are their home. The performance is repeated daily throughout the year, and daily tons of fish are consumed ; but there seems to be no end to the anchovies. Despite the steady inroads upon their hosts they are as plentiful now as they were a thousand years ago. Only four species of birds are responsible for the main deposition of guano. Of these the cor- morants, or, as they are locally named, guanayes, are by far the most numerous. Their rookeries lie like great dark shadows of immovable clouds on the sloping expanses of rock whitened with chalky guano. The nests occur in the ratio of about three to the square meter, a single rookery often covering as much as a hundred acres. The nests are merely slight depressions in the guano layer which overlies the rocks, and each contains a pair of young who have to be fed. This necessitates a continual flight of parent birds to and from the ocean, a never-ending stream of hurriedly moving bodies. The young gobble what fish are brought, leaving the residue which they cannot swallow to rot on the ever-growing walls of refuse that surround the nest cavity. Daily these ramparts mount higher. Each bird of the family contributes its share, mother, father, and off- spring. Excrement is also plentifully distributed on the floor of the home; it is trampled down, and the level of the nest rises higher. Gradually a fresh layer of guano forms over the rookery GUANO 201 area. It is estimated that each bird annually adds the worth of about a dollar and a half as its share. Second in importance to the cormorant as a guano producer stands the pelican, termed alca- traz. This bird unfortunately prefers the more humid northern islands of Peru, and its product, when gathered, is therefore of poorer quality. It is excitable by nature and inclined to resent the extraction of guano from its rookery, and for that reason, in former days of wholesale depletion of the beds, it greatly fell off in population. Now, however, under scientific conservation of the guano and close protection, it is regaining the numbers once lost and bids soon to play a more important part in production than ever before. The piquero, or gannet, stands third in impor- tance on the list. Although these birds make nu- merically an enormous showing they have an un- fortunate habit of nesting on cliffs, with the result that a considerable portion of their product falls into the sea and is lost. By the construction of shelves, however, much of this decrement is now saved. Notwithstanding this, the annual loss still can be estimated in thousands of tons. The birds leave twice as much excreta around their nests as do the cormorants. The fourth guano producer also is a species of gannet, the booby. Like the pelican it prefers the northern islands and hence plays but a small part in the Chincha group. It is a big producer, 202 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE however, and in the Lobos its numbers have in- creased enormously under protection. Historical Significance of Guano The first available kno-wledge of guano being utilized as a fertilizer comes down to us from the legends of the early Incas of Peru. The then apparently exhaustless beds of the Chinchas were worked at that time, and the plantations of the Incas throve under the impetus given the crops by the manure. So valuable did the Indians con- sider the deposits that the penalty of death was imposed upon any one caught destro}"ing guano- producing birds. Upon the arrival of the Spaniard the great Inca Empire was shattered. The natives were con- quered, their fields despoiled, and as slaves they were driven to the mines. The Spaniard wasted no thought on paltry fertilizer; his eyes* were sharpened only for a sight of that glowing metal, gold. From the saltpeter beds he manufactured gunpowder with which to advance his conquests, but of guano he had no knowledge — or inclination to use that knowledge, if he had it. He was a war- rior, not a guano burrower. To him the Indians were God-sent slaves especially created to labor in the mines, not to pass the time on the -filthy Chin- chas. GUANO 203 Thus the islands stood for three centuries after the coming of the white man, buried beneath a hundred-foot blanket of guano, the true riches of Manoa, neglected and disregarded. Then, with the opening of the nineteenth century, the world suddenly realized the true worth of what for so long had merely awaited the wielding of a pick and shovel. The first specimens of guano from the Chinchas were brought to Europe in 1804, but forty more years elapsed before its value as a fertilizer was recognized by the people as a whole. Then followed a rush comparable to the gold rush of a few years later in America. But, instead of prairie- schooners and oxen, the seekers einployed sea- going vessels and sails. Guano was the goal. Ships gathered about the Chinchas like bees around a bowl of honey. Vessels of all nations met there, loaded themselves to the gunwales, and departed, to return as fast as the wind would drive them to their home ports and back around the Horn again. By the middle of the century the crush was at its height. It was no uncommon sight to see fiftv vessels loadino^ simultaneouslv around the Chinchas. Hundreds of thousands of tons had now disappeared from the islands. The deposits seemed inexhaustible to the guano merchants. By 1872 about ten million tons had been extracted; the height of one island had been lowered five 204 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE score feet. And the birds, much perturbed by the unnatural activities around their homes, be- gan to die off. In the meantime Peru was making the best of a good bargain from other natural resources owed to birds. Together with Chile she was working her nitrate beds for all they were worth. These were responsible for a large portion of the world's gunpowder, and there was an ever-increasing de- mand for their product. Civil war had broken out in the United States, Europe was aflame with martial activity, and there was a pressing call for more ammunition to fight battles. So enormous were the nitrate beds that Chile and Peru heartily congratulated themselves and cheerfully supplied the growing demand. A million and a half tons of Chile saltpeter were taken out in one year. In 1860 it had been esti- mated that the deposits were sufficient to supply the world for 1500 years more; three decades later a few optimists thought that the nitrates might possibly last forty years longer, so heavily had the beds been plundered. Peru waxed opulent. iShe owned both guano and nitrate beds. An export duty was levied on all the material taken out. As the trade flour- ished, her national wealth multiplied. All inter- nal taxation was abolished. A supposedly ideal government was established, a government which GUANO 205 subsisted entirely upon an income derived from natural resources. Alas, all the geese proved to be swans! Chile was jealous of the good fortune of her neighbor across the border. Chile owned no guano islands. Her own income was dependent upon her saltpeter beds, and these wer'e insufficient to supply her needs. The iniquitous Peru had secured more than her proper share of the spoils. And, to make it worse, her largest nitrate beds were situated close to the Chilean border. These should belong to Chile ; Peru ought to be satisfied with the guano deposits alone. The inevitable war between the two countries broke out in 1879. After a considerable period of desultory fighting, Chile claimed the victory. In compensation for the real or fancied wrongs in- flicted upon her, she annexed the rich province of Tarapaca and all the nitrates it contained. Thereafter she rested upon her laurels, more or less satisfied. 4 The Search for Guano by the United States Although never deeply interested in the salt- peter beds, the United States was among the leaders in the pursuit of guano — a position into which she was forced by her economic situ- 206 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE ation. With the opening of the Mississippi VaUey, her agricultural possibilities had increased ten- fold. Fertilizer became an article of necessity in the extension of husbandry. At that date the chief resources of the United States were based on her agriculture : she needed guano and needed it badly, but it was difficult to secure it in large enough quantity. Even as early as 1850 the price had soared as high as fifty dollars a ton. Though many farmers were too poor to buy it, the supply still fell far short of the demand. In desperation the United States Government entered into negotiations with Peru to obtain a major portion of the Peruvian output. The pro- posed plan would give America what amounted to a monopoly on the guano trade, and Peru balked at the idea. She was too wily to be caught in this way ; the high price of guano was too vital to her existence. Grave international complications therefore arose, and the United States was snubbed. Then, despairing of an agreement with Peru, she concentrated her attention elsewhere — upon the islands of the Pacific. The American Guano Co. of New York was -or- ganized in 1855 with a capital of ten million dollars to develop the deposits on Baker and Jarvis islands in the South Pacific. In the following year the Federal Government passed a Guano Act to encourage exploration for guano. Everything GUANO 207 possible was done to further individual interest in guano seeking. The Gruano Act set forth that any American citizen who discovered an island not under the jurisdiction of a foreign government might, if he desired, remove any guano which might be present, under protection of the United States. Hitherto national policy had frowned upon ex- tension into territory outside the continental limits of North America; but now the necessity for an increased supply of fertilizing material led to a deviation from this traditional policy. It was declared, however, that only peaceable occupation of the islands would be countenanced by the United States; any departure from this line of conduct would mean the loss of the island to the discoverer, whether private indi- vidual or developing company. Under the act,, upon the exhaustion of the guano beds the island must revert to the United States as its lawful owner; and it might be returned to its former status of unclaimed territory if the government so desired. By 1898 more than seventy islands had been located under this Guano Act — ^fifty-four in the South Pacific and seventeen in the West Indies. Of these the majority proved worthless, but a few yielded small amounts of the desired product. In this way, between 1869 and 1898, something more 208 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIED LIFE than a quarter of a milHon tons was procured for use in the United States. The island deposits, however, were comparatively small, and by the beginning of the present century they had been worked out. Laysan Island, several hundred miles northwest of the Hawaiian group, alone of them all still has a future in the guano industry, but the island is small and its production of guano is low. Peruvian Guano When the failure of her new plan became evi- dent, the United States turned her attention back to Peru. Her importations from that country had never ceased, and now she sought to double and quadruple them. But again her plans met with a check. This time, however, there proved to be no international complications involved. The inexhaustible supply of Peruvian guano was merely giving out! At the close of the war with Chile, Peru had found herself deeply buried under a national debt. She discovered that warfare is indeed a costly pastime. Then, in a frantic effort to emerge from under the burden, she had mortgaged the Chincha and Lobos groups to private corporations. The results of this step are not difficult to understand. Under the terms of contract the* GUANO 209 greater part of the guano had to be exported. And exported it was. The hundred-foot beds disappeared as if they were melting snow. The end soon hove in sight. By 1907 only 124,000 tons were extracted as against nearly ten times that amount forty years earlier. The old guano which remained was of inferior quality; the pro- duction of the new annually decreased as the birds died off. In signing away her guano rights to corpora- tions, Peru had been short-sighted in more than one way. What was deemed sufficient fertilizer for her own agriculture had been reserved, but the inevitable expansion bound to follow in a new country had not been considered. Soon it was dis- covered that not half enough guano had been placed in reservation ; but it was too late. Peru 's hands were bound by contracts. Four times the amount she needed for herself were annually being exported to foreign countries. Peruvian agriculture suffered. In addition, ow- ing to the continual and ruthless destruction of the rookeries, the sea-birds were rapidly becom- ing extinct. Instead of a yearly deposition of a hundred thousand tons of fresh guano, the birds now produced scarcely one fifth of that amount. The country faced a wiping out of its income, both from agriculture and from guano. Peru was desperate; she was panic-stricken. Her enormous wealth had been expended, leaving 210 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE nothing to show for it. Then she did what she should have done half a century before. As fast as the leases to the private corporations ran out, the islands were taken over by the Government and conservation commenced. The welfare of the guano islands was placed in the hands of the Compahia Administradora del Guano, a semi-official corporation controlled by the Peruvian Government. The duty of this com- pany was to put the extraction of guano upon a purely economical business basis. When an island was returned from private lease, its admin- istration was at once undertaken by the new com- pany, and for the first tim-e in the history of Peru the production of guano was handled from a scien- tific point of view. The initial move of the Compania Administra- dora del Guano was to curtail the promiscuous ex- port of the product. Thereafter the fertilizer was to be employed only within the national boundaries of the country until all internal needs had been met. As the old beds had been exhausted, it was realized that the hope of a future guano industry lay in an increase of fresh production. This, of course, could be effected only by an enlargement in the size and number of rookeries. With these objects in view, each island was erected into a bird sanctuary, closed to all visitors whose presence might disturb the birds. Watch- men were detailed to guard the reservations from GUANO 211 marauding creatures, such as condors, eagles, skuas, and gulls, which extract a considerable toll from the young birds and eggs. The psychology of the sea-birds was studied and steps were taken to avoid disturbing them as much as possible during the gathering of their excreta. This was removed with all speed once every thirty months and the island vacated immediately afterward. In short, every manner of means was attempted to cause the birds to multiply. The result of this careful treatment, after thir- teen years, is entirely satisfactory. The number of birds using the guano islands has visibly in- creased. They are tame, contented, and prolific. In a single decade, from 1909 to 1919, their annual deposits rose from 25,350 tons to 80,517. Peru- vian agriculture called for 50,000 tons in 1907 and received only 26,000; in 1920 it demanded 70,000 and got them. Wliat is more, the nitrogen con- tent of the guano, which in 1913-14 averaged about 8.65 per cent., had through some unknown cause reached 12.52 per cent, in 1920. The extraction of guano is not permitted during the main breeding season of the birds, from November to March. As each bird is valued at fifteen dollars by the Peruvian Government, it has been made a penal otfense to destroy either the birds or their eggs. Thus the feathered popu- lation of certain islands, which ten years ago had fallen to a few score thousand, now totals a million 212 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE individuals or more. The future of the industry has brightened, and it is not too much to expect that some day not many years in the future will see the exportation of hundreds of thousands of tons as of old. The birds, ably assisted by the Compania Administradora del Guano, are doing their best to win back that day. That is the story of guano. For Peru it is al- most the whole story. Her bird colonies are a source of wealth which may be counted in hun- dreds of millions of dollars. They are her most important natural resource, one upon which she can depend for a steady annual income. CHAPTER XI BIEDS AS FOOD 1. In Europe. 2. Bird Eggs. 3. Edible Bird Nests. 4. History of American Birds as Food. 5. An Economic Resource of the United States. In Europe Birds and their eggs have been utilized as food since the earliest years of human antiquity. In the dark days before the development of agricul- ture, eggs formed a staple diet for mankind, just as they do at present for the Eskimos and modern savage tribes. Even now both birds and eggs are esteemed as delicacies by most civilized peoples, though their place as a common aliment has been taken to a large extent by domestic fowl. The birds of Europe have been consumed in enormous numbers in the past. For two thousand years they were considered the property of any one who desired to take them. Only game-birds were vouchsafed any protection, and they were reserved for slaughter by persons of rank; song-birds and water-fowl could be captured at will at any time of the year. 213 214 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE This is the condition that existed in Europe until comparatively recent times and is even so to-day in Italy. Seventy years ago it was not an uncommon thing to see larks, linnets, thrushes, starlings, and magpies hanging by the gross in the shop-windows of any city in Europe. They were toothsome morsels, greatly sought after by epicures. Hundreds of persons made a living by their capture, which was contrived with nets, traps, and guns ; and their sale brought a consider- able income to the shopkeepers. But the wholesale slaughter of birds has had its ups and downs. At one period in the history of Europe it might be frowned upon by the governing powers ; a generation later it might be encouraged. Thus, in France, immediately before 1789, game- birds were rigidly protected by law and might be killed only during short open seasons. The slay- ing of other kinds for food, while not forbidden, was not popular. Then came the French Revolu- tion, and a wave of communism swept over the country. Laws limiting the personal freedom of the individual were abolished, game-laws included. The birds and game of France were turned over to the people to do with what they willed. They willed to eat them. When Napoleon forced himself to the throne of France, he lost no time in reestablishing the game-laws. But all birds other than game were BIRDS AS FOOD 215 overlooked, and their death toll continued to in- crease. Owing to the state of war which prevailed in Europe at that time, food was expensive and scarce in France. Birds were easy to catch and cost nothing. Therefore, they became food for the French people. Once the habit had been instilled in the peasantry of securing food in this way, only the enforcement of stringent laws could break it. As a result of the promiscuous slaughter of the pre- vious fifty years, the agriculture of France by the middle of the nineteenth century was virtually ruined by succeeding waves of insect pests, aided by swarms of rodents which devoured the crops. An official investigation showed that all birds were on the edge of extermin- ation; they had gone to provide sustenance for the peasants and to fill the markets of Paris. The French Government at once en- acted laws to protect all but a few birds. The laws were enforced, and within a few years the bird population had revived. The shops were no longer cluttered with their bodies, and the insect and rodent scourges had become memories of the past. The story of Italy, however, is very different from that of France. Italian birds still are the property of any person who wishes to take them. They are excellent eating: therefore Italy is with- 216 THE IMPOKTANCE OF BIRD LIFE out birds except in the migratory seasons when the winged travelers from northern Europe pass over her boundaries. Bird killing in Italy is on a scientific basis. The markets are flooded with the little bodies dur- ing the late autumn, and birds are regarded as one of the commercial resources of the country. In reality, however, they represent a rich resource of all Europe which is employed by Italy for her own benefit. Small birds fetch from two to ^ve cents apiece in the market. They may be bought singly or strung on long spits. The majority are song-birds, though a few actually belong to the proper list of migratory game. The Italian method of procuring them is by , means of traps, of which several kinds are employed. For instance, there is the roccolo, a tower set up in the midst of a small grove of trees or brush, from which are strung a series of fowler ^s nets. The bird-catcher remains hidden inside the tower, while, outside, his live decoy- birds entice others into the toils with their calls. Or the fowler may utilize as a trap a high cir- cular wall completely lined inside with nets. The bottom of the inclosed court-yard is liberally covered with grain, and several call-birds are loosed there to feed. Migrating individuals, as- sured by the presence of the decoys, flock down be- side them. Then, when a sufficient number have collected, the trapper discharges a gun. Wild BIRDS AS FOOD 217 consternation follows the report. The birds scat- ter, panic-stricken, in all directions, and many are enmeshed in the netting. These two means of trapping afford an excellent living to the bird-catchers. Five hundred birds may be secured in a single trap within a week. Some roccolos have been known to take 10,000 in a season. Concerning Norway and Sweden there is a dif- ferent tale to tell. There birds are protected by most stringent laws. Song-birds have a perma- nently closed season, but game in the form of grouse, pheasants, ducks, and geese is marketed in large quantities. The sale is limited to short seasons and care is taken to avoid too heavy slaughter. Game-birds are sold to the value of several million dollars annually. Under the British law, during the autumn months the shops of England are also filled with pheasants, grouse, and partridge. The majority of game lands in that country are privately owned and the birds are carefully reared and guarded for shooting. Care is taken not to kill more than the preserves will easily afford, and the surplus bag which cannot be consumed by the sportsmen is sold. A definite market has thus been developed in England, one which is not detrimental to the in- crease of game-birds and yet is of actual commer- cial importance. During the World War, when. 218 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE England was on a ration basis, this additional food product proved of great value. Because of pre- vious conservation of game there was a large quantity of food on hand which now could be util- ized. Early in the war the Ministry of Food issued regulations regarding the disposal of game. The owner, or occupier, of a *^ shooting" was per- mitted to keep enough birds for himself and family, but all that were left over must be shipped to the market. The sportsman had no option whatever in the disposal of his bag. The price of cock-pheasants, in 1918, was officially set at five shillings eightpence each; hen-pheasants at five shillings twopence ; old partridges at one shilling ninepence ; young partridges at three shillings six- pence; old grouse at two shillings sixpence; and young grouse at five shillings. Song-birds, while protected in most parts of Great Britain, are still killed and eaten in some regions. When the war was being fought, crows, rooks, sparrows, starlings, and storks could offi- cially be taken as food; but many other birds found their way to the market. Gull eggs were also consumed in large numbers. 2 Bird Eggs "While a promiscuous destruction of eggs is the BIEDS AS FOOD 219 swiftest way to annihilate any species of wild bird, egging when conducted in a conservative manner need not be productive of harmful results. A living example of this is to be found in the eider-ducks of Iceland. For more than a thou- sand years these birds have supplied the Iceland- ers with food, clothing, and bedding ; and yet they are as numerous as they were in the beginning. The colonists took care never to kill more birds than were necessary for their needs. Although the Icelander, after several incursions, secures from ten to a dozen duck eggs every season from each nest, he makes certain that enough are left so that the population of the ducks will not suf- fer. The world in general, unfortunately, has not followed the Icelander's example. If it had done so there would be many more birds alive than there are to-day. Many great colonies have been destroyed or thoroughly disorganized by the in- roads of egg hunters. And this has been the fate of most rookeries along the American coast. Until State legislation put a stop to it, every egg more than one inch in diameter that could be found along the Atlantic seaboard was considered fair booty for the egg merchant. From Nova Scotia northward such sea-fowl as auks, murres, cormorants, ducks, and geese were wont to breed in vast numbers. Yearly their breeding-grounds were devastated until the actual 220 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE longevity of the species was threatened. To-day auks, murres, and even cormorants do not number one tenth what they did a century ago ; the Labra- dor duck, partly through the efforts of egg hunters, is now extinct; and the eider-duck no longer breeds in great rookeries along the Labra- dor coast. Instead of boldly constructing their nests in the open as was their ancient custom, these birds now rear their broods surreptitiously in tall patches of grass or upon rocky ledges in- accessible to men. The same fate has befallen the gull, tern, and heron rookeries of the southern Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. Only forty years ago vessels were specially outfitted for raids on the sandy islands off the shores of Virginia and the Carolinas. In Texas, during the nesting sea- son, every boat on the coast, large and small, gathered at the rookeries. The procedure of the collectors in those days was identical with the procedure employed every- where else. The first step upon arriving at the breeding-grounds was to destroy every egg in sight. The birds thereupon laid fresh ones, and these were gathered every second day until the laying ceased. No thought was given to conser- vation or protection of the creatures that were responsible for the eggs. These were merely picked up as long as there were any to pick up. The result was that the birds could not rear suffi- BIRDS AS FOOD 221 cient young to maintain their numbers. The rookeries every year became smaller and the birds more scattered. Finally, it no longer paid the hunters to visit the islands. But, while the trade was at its best, the cargoes of eggs were shipped to the nearest market. Great quantities would be broken in transit, or, if the weather proved warm, they would rot. Only a small percentage reached their destination, and these were as a rule of extremely poor quality. And the prices obtained were low. The fate of the Pacific coast rookeries was identical to the fate of those on the eastern sea- board. Islands, cliffs, and sand-dunes, from Alaska to southern California., were stripped of their avian products. So enormous were the colo- nies of murres alone that six men have been known to load four tons of eggs into a vessel at Walrus Island in Bering Sea in three hours. At one time millions of gulls and murres nested in the Farallone Islands, situated about thirty miles from the Golden Gate. Egg collecting went on there for fifty years until only a remnant of the rookeries remained. Corporations were organ- ized to handle the industry, so important did it seem. Vessel-load after vessel-load arrived at the market in San Francisco. Half a million eggs were taken in 1854 from South Farallone Island alone ; thirty years later this number had fallen to three hundred thousand; and in 1896 only 222 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE ninety-two thousand reached San Francisco. The eggs were worth from twelve to twenty cents a dozen in the city. A corporation also undertook to handle the eggs and guano of the Laysan Island albatross rookery. Narrow-gage tram lines were laid over the island for the purpose of collecting the guano. During the breeding season the eggs were gath- ered by the car-load and rolled to a central ship- ping-point where they could be placed on a vessel, or be cooked up for the guano diggers if food hap- pened to be running short. But, by the enactment of State laws, and through the making of government preserves out of the remnants of the sea-bird rookeries, egg hunting is now unlawful in the United States and Canada. Poachers still continue to take a small toll, but their raids are insignificant compared with what went on fifty years ago. The rookeries are at last regaining the numerical strength which was theirs in the days of our great-grandfathers. 3 Edible Bird Nests Though of far less general utility as food than the eggs of birds, the nests of a small group of swifts which inhabit southeastern Asia and most of the adjacent islands are sometimes eaten. These swifts are tiny creatures ranging from three and BIRDS AS FOOD 223 a half to ^Ye inches in length, and their nests are correspondingly small. They nest in great cav- erns, swarming there in hundreds of thousands, and the swish of their rapidly beating wings may be likened to the roar of a gale as it tears through the rigging of a ship. The nests, manufactured from the glutinous saliva of the birds, are attached to the sides of the rocks in the form of small, saucer- like cradles. The Chinese prize these nests highly as food, employing them as an ingredient of their famous bird's-nest soup. The nest of the esculent swift- let is the one most used. The bird is a native of Borneo, and the collecting of its nests constitutes there an important industry. More than three and a half million have been exported from that region in a single year. Mr. H. Prior, who about thirty years ago visited a cave in Borneo, gives the following description of the methods pursued by the bird-nesters : In this cave I saw the nest gatherers at work getting in their crop. A thin rattan ladder was fixed to the end of a long pole and wedged against the rock: two men were on the ladder; one carried a long, four-pronged spear, a lighted candle being fixed to it a few inches below the prongs. A slight twist detaches the nest un- broken from the rock ; the spear is then withdrawn until the head is within the reach of the second man, who takes the nest off the prongs and places it in a pouch carried at the waist. The nests of best quality are bound up 224 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE into packets with strips of rattan, the inferior being simply threaded together; the best packets generally weigh one catty (IVslb.), averaging forty nests, and are sold at $9 each, the annual value of the nests gathered being $25,000, These caves have been worked for seven generations without any diminution in the quantity ; three crops are taken during the year. The white nests are supplied entirely by the inspissated saliva of the bird, and are the first produced. These are taken and sold for their weight in silver. The next made by the birds are mixed with rootlets, grass, etc., and often show traces of blood, from the efforts of the birds to produce the saliva. They are esteemed second quality. The third nest is composed of extraneous sub- stances cemented together and to the rock with a little saliva; these are generally left to the birds to breed in, and are usually destroyed at the end of the season, to compel the birds to build fresh white ones. History of American Birds as Food The ruthless slaughter of birds in Italy has been touched upon in a previous section of this chapter, as has the scientific marketing of game- birds in G-reat Britain and elsewhere in Europe. We now arrive at the game markets of America, and what an ugly story we find it is ! When the first white settler reached America he was amazed at the hosts of all manner and de- scriptions of birds. So numerous were they that Courtesy of Dr. R. C. IMurphy DISUSED CORMORANT NESTS, SHOWING THE GUANO READY FOR GATHERING Courtesy oi the Natiunal Association of Aubxidon Societies Photograph by T. G. Pearson A Cabot's tern colony in texas — these rookies U'ere depleted by egg HUNTERS BIRDS AS FOOD 225 it was inconceivable that the supply should ever be exhausted. But the first settlers did not bother to kill birds. The forests and plains teemed with large four- footed game whose meat was delicious. The cost of ammunition was too high to waste it upon smaller stuff. The hardy professional hunters of pioneer days were killers of deer, bear, and bison ; grouse and ducks were beneath their notice. However, as the years passed, the time arrived when, late in the eighteenth century, large game grew scarce in the more settled regions. Market hunters were forced to seek deer so far from the cities that it no longer paid to haul them back to market. Bear were scarce and bison had been ex- terminated throughout all the territory east of the Ohio. Then it was that birds actually began to suffer. Throughout the last century, and the first dec- ade of the present one an internecine slaughter of game-birds fed the markets of this country. In the earliest days, when the birds were most numerous and less likely to take fright in the pres- ence of men, nets proved the most profitable means of securing them. Ducks could be driven or decoyed into the toils without difficulty. The net- ting of quail took no great skill; heath hens proved docile and stupid ; and nets were the only method by which it paid to kill wild pigeons. 226 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE So great was the resulting slaughter of the last two species that both finally succumbed. The heath hens went first — except for the small rem- nant which still inhabits Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts— and the passenger pigeon lin- gered on for a few years longer. As early as 1815 Audubon says that he saw schooners tied to the wharves of New York laden with pigeons. From that time forward the slay- ing of these birds went on without abatement, until the species suddenly ceased to exist. It is estimated that approximately a billion were killed in Michigan in 1878. About twelve million were shipped from one Michigan town in a single sea- son and from another to\vTi about sixteen million in two years. These birds brought twelve to fifty cents a dozen in the market. The last one alive in the wild state was killed in 1908. Supplementing his nets, the professional hunter for many years employed cannons against the great rafts of water-fowl which lay on the quiet waters of our coastal bays. These weapons were utilized mostly at night when the victims rested in com- pact flocks on the water surface. The cannon was mounted in the bow of a boat on a tripod and swivel. The boat was then silently piloted up to a sleeping flock, and the gun, crammed to the muzzle with small shot, was discharged into its midst. The slaughter was ghastly and extremely waste- ful. Perhaps two hundred bodies might be col- BIRDS AS FOOD 227 lected, but twice that number would be left to drift away unseen in the darkness. Batteries, consisting of a number of gun-barrels secured to a framework and so arranged that they could be fired simultaneously, were also used against ducks and geese. The victims were de- coyed to the spot covered by the battery and there annihilated at a single discharge. Even to-day there is a similar apparatus, termed an armada y in use in Mexico. Three hundred gun- barrels are employed, all aimed to sweep the sur- face of a small pool. They are arranged in two tiers, the lower one being directed at the water, and the upper to clear the surface by a few feet. The ducks are attracted within range by scatter- ing feed on the pond, in the same manner that they are baited on Long Island. The birds remain unmolested until thousands acquire the habit of occupying the pool. Then, when a sufficient num- ber have collected, the armada is discharged. It is on record that one discharge has accounted for 4696 birds. Netting and trapping were at last made unlaw- ful in the United States, but only when it was al- most too late to save the birds. The use of cannon and night shooting were also prohibited. There- after the market hunter was forced to rely upon the shot-gun only, and upon the straightness of his aim. Notwithstanding the passage of new protective 228 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE measures, however, the slaughter of game-birds showed signs of increasing rather than decreasing. More men had entered the profession. Out of the ordinary two-barreled, breech-loading shot-gun, a six-shot pump-gun had been evolved, and from this an automatic weapon which could be fired five times in succession by merely pulling the trigger. These weapons proved about as dangerous to birds as the old swivel-guns and nets. As a result prairie chickens began to follow the same road over which the heath hens had gone. Car-load upon car-load was shipped from the West to the Eastern cities. Ducks continued to arrive at the market in countless thousands. Shorebirds, golden plover, and snipe could be bought **dirt cheap. ' ' And all the while the city markets cried for more. So great was the created demand that song- birds began to be treated like game-birds. Robins were killed in tens of thousands in the Southern States. One hundred and twenty thousand were shipped yearly from one small village in Tennes- see. Bobolinks found great favor with the epi- cures. Three quarters of a million were sent from Georgetown, South Carolina, in one season. Millions were consumed locally. And other song- birds, such as snow-buntings and meadow-larks, were sold as game. Market shooting had proved too profitable for the welfare of game. A certain hunter on Long BIRDS AS FOOD 229 Island told the writer in 1907 that he had made as much as $2500 in six weeks by killing ducks. At that time redheads brought two dollars apiece from the consumer and canvas-backs five; on the market scaup ducks were worth fifty cents and common scoters that much a pair. Yellowlegs and black-breasted plover brought three dollars a dozen. Too many men were in the business, and birds grew scarce. Ruffed grouse a century before had been sold at two cents each; now they brought two dollars, and there were not sufficient to meet the demand. By 1910 a dozen quail were valued at five dollars, whereas a few generations ago it would have been difficult to obtain a few cents for them. Wild turkeys, which in Audubon's day brought twenty-five cents apiece, were no longer on the market. Professional hunters had actually ruined their own business by outdoing themselves in slaughter. And by 1900 their last day was in sight. The public had suddenly awakened to the facts of the situation. The game-birds of America had virtu- ally been destroyed. Then it was that the various States enacted laws to prohibit the sale of native game within their borders. But they failed to prohibit the marketing of that which had been killed outside their boundaries, A heavy illicit trade in game was the result. Thousands of quail, grouse, and ducks shot in New 230 THE IMPOKTANCE OF BIRD LIFE Jersey or Maryland were sold with perfect se- curity in New York. If they could be smuggled out of the State where they had met their demise, all was well. So long as they had not been killed in New York State, the game dealers had a per- fect right under the law to dispose of them. At last, however, the now famous Bayne Law, which prohibits the sale of American wild game and limits the sale of imported foreign game, was passed in New York. Within the next ten years every State in the Union but four had followed her example; and in the recalcitrant States — Colorado, Montana, Washington, and New Mexico — the sale of game-birds taken within the State is now forbidden. The Federal Government in 1916 passed an act for the protection of migratory birds. The sale of any such, including water-fowls, shore-birds, snipe, woodcock, and rails, was prohibited through- out the United States. The knell of the market hunter had sounded. The profession in this country went suddenly out of existence. 5 An Economic Resoiirce of the United States Before closing it is necessary to add a few words concerning the number of game-birds now legiti- mately shot during the open season. Virtually all of these are eaten either by the gunner or his BIRDS AS FOOD 231 friends, and, when lumped together, they demon- strate that game-birds still have an economic im- portance as a food product. There were in 1911, according to Dr. W. T. Hornaday, more than two million and a half licensed gunners in the United States. Massa- chusetts and New York together issued 195,000 licenses. By 1920 that number had been increased in those two States by 70 per cent. — to a quarter of a million in New York and nearly one hundred thousand in Massachusetts. The quota of licensed gunners had increased in the other States in pro- portion, so that their total in 1920 may have ap- proached four and a half million. About 435,000 game-birds were killed in Penn- •ylvania during the season of 1919. As there were m that State less than four hundred thousand licensed shooters, the average to the gun was slightly more than one bird. The total weight of birds shot was estimated by the State Game Com- mission as 314 tons, an average of two pounds to the gun. In Massachusetts, during the same year, each licensed gun obtained only one seventh of a bird, but as these were mainly pheasants, ducks, or geese, the weight to the gun was equivalent to half a pound of meat. The gunners of one inland county in New York shot slightly more than one pound apiece. If every licensed gunner in the United States 232 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE secured one pound of birds in 1919, there were a total of approximately 2250 tons killed that year. Taking 1919 as an average year, those game-birds, valued at fifty cents a pound, then mean an annual food resource of the United States worth $2,250,- 000. Prom "Our Vanishing Wild Life" THE HUNT FOR DOWN, PLUMAGE AND FOOD EXTERMINATED THESE GREAT AUK ESKIMO CURLEW PASSENGER PIGEON LABR.A.DOR DUCK PALLAS CORMORANT CAROLINA PARRAKEET CHAPTER XII GAME-BIEDS 1. Definition. 2 The Number of Game-Birds in the United States. 3. The Tragedy of the Water-Fowl. 4. The Tragedy of the Shorebirds. 5. The Tragedy of the Upland Birds! 6. En- emies of Gam.e-Birds. 7. Protection and Conservation. Definition It is exceedingly difficult to hit upon a defini- tion for game-birds which will meet with univer- sal agreement. The majority of civilized coun- tries have their o^vn individual sets of game-laws and their own definitions of the characteristics considered necessary to place a bird on the game list. These characteristics vary, of course, ac- cording to the species which inhabit the region. Thus, many birds of Europe are accounted as game, which do not occur at all in the United States; the game-birds of South America are very different from those of North America ; and the Australian game-birds differ from any others in the world. Two countries with a common frontier may have diametrically opposite attitudes toward game. Popular tradition may have it that a song-bird 233 234 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE in one country will be protected by the full weight of the law, while in the land across the way it will be a much-sought-for game-bird. Cases in point are Italy and France. Game-birds in France are strictly limited to* a few orders or families partic- ularly palatable when on the table. These are protected by long closed seasons, and the killing of any other species — except in parts of southern France — is prohibited at all times. Just across the border lies Italy with few or no game-laws. Birds there belong to the individual and may be slaughtered at will. France ^s song-birds, then, are Italy 's game-birds. In the broadest sense game-birds are any wild I)irds that are hunted as food. The early Egyp- tians feasted on ducks, geese, and storks ; the game of the Romans included any bird thajt was edi- ble ; the dodo of Mauritius, later exterminated by swine, was used as food more than two hundred years ago by the Dutch ; fully a century has passed since the last moa went to feed the Maoris of New Zealand ; and the sandhill crane was long hunted in America until it was brought to the verge of extinction. These were all considered game-birds while their day lasted. Any creature that would do for the pot ! Such was the sad fate of birds in all civilized countries until the last century was well advanced. The first settlers in America found the region actually teeming with game of all kinds. For this they GAME-BIRDS 235 gave thanksgiving; an abundance of meat meant the survival of their settlements. Centuries passed; the colonies grew and spread until they had overflowed the Alleghany barrier into the reaches of the Mississippi. Game was still plenti- ful ; the forests were alive with ruif ed grouse, tur- keys, and quail; at times the sky was darkened by great flights of pigeons. Upon these vast hosts the colonial sportsmen could make no lasting im- pression with their ill-constructed fowling-pieces. Feathered game, other than turkeys, actually held its own against the settlers for a hundred and fifty years. So plentiful was it that it was little affected by the growth of large towns in its do- main. As an example of this, a New York news- paper in 1772 advertised for sale 'at auction a tract of more than a hundred acres situated near what is now 125th Street in that city, stating that it abounded with wild-fowl, including ** ducks, geese, pidgeons, quail, etc.'' In Massachusetts a bounty was for a time placed on ruffed grouse in order to save the crops which were beiiPg de- stroyed by the birds. But within fifty years of the inception of the United States as a nation, several species of food birds had already grown scarce in some of the more densely populated States. With the arrival of the breech-loader their disappearance was more rapid. What large birds remained faced extermi- nation; and the smaller ones commenced to be 236 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE sought for. Reed-birds, robins, blackbirds, and pigeons proved almost as delicious to the palate as more legitimate game. Laws governing the killing of birds gradually evolved in the various States, but these for a long time proved ineffective. There was no set definition of the diif erence between game and non- game birds. The story of France and Italy was reenacted. Robins and reed-birds were protected in the North and slaughtered in the South. What were considered song-birds in one State might be much-sought-f or game in the next. Finally, the American Ornithologists' Union stepped in to relieve the chaotic situation. It pre- pared, in 1886, a definition of game-birds which since then has been generally accepted by the United States as a whole. The definition was based entirely upon the natural grouping of birds and read as follows : The following shall be considered as game birds : The Anatidae, commonly known as swans, geese, brant, and river and sea ducks; the Rallidae, commonly known as rails, coots, mudhens, and gallinules ; the Limicolae, com- monly known as shore birds, plovers, surf birds, snipe, woodcock, sandpipers, tattlers, and curlew ; and the Gal- linae, commonly known as wild turkeys, grouse, prairie chickens, pheasants, partridges, and quail. The Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture at Washington in 1900 expanded this GAME-BIRDS 237 definition to read ** ducks'' for ** river and sea ducks ' ' ; shorebirds, ^ ^ including plover, woodcock, sandpipers, and curlews ...''; and left out prairie chickens from the list, including them under the head of grouse. Under the Migratory Treaty between Great Britain and the United States for the protection of migratory birds in the United States and Canada, ratified in 1916, the definition of migratory game-birds included, be- sides ducks, shorebirds, and rails, cranes, such as the ** little brown, sandhill, and whooping cranes," and pigeons. There is, however, a permanent closed season on all cranes, though many States still retain the mourning dove on their list of game-birds. Birds as game, as defined by law in England, are far fewer in number than in America. Under the law they are ^^ pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or moor game, black game, and bustards'' — two natural orders or groups, as against ^we found in America. These are ofiicial game, but shorebirds and wild-fowl, though not officially such, are treated as game and come under the Wild Birds Protection Act of 1880. 2 The Number of Game-Birds in the United States According to the definition, and including the pigeon group, there are at the present time roughly 238 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 170 possible kinds of game-bird in the United States. This, however, is a considerable overesti- mate of what sportsmen are actually permitted to shoot. Limitations have been placed on virtually every natural group, considerably narrowing the number of species eligible for the gun of the hunter. Some forms have been removed for an indefinite period from the active game list ; others are only temporarily absent. For example, the crane group has been placed entirely and for all time out of reach of the sportsman. Of the fifty or more species of ducks, geese, and swans, the wood- duck and several forms of eider-duck have been removed, probably forever, and swans have a long temporary respite. Quail, prairie chickens, and turkeys in many States are given closed seasons of five to ten years, or permanent exemption. Finally, out of the seventy-odd species of shore- birds and snipe, only six are eligible for shooting : the woodcock, Wilson snipe, greater and lesser yellowlegs, and black-breasted and golden plover. Thus the number of game-birds residing in the United States that can be shot falls to consider- ably less than a hundred. Subtracting from these the several species of grouse and ptarmigan which inhabit only Alaska, together with those birds which are rare visitants to the border States from Mexico, there are left less than seventy-five bona- fide species to be utilized as game. GAME-BIRDS 239 But the seventy-five are sufficient to meet the re- quirements of all sportsmen, if the sportsmen are not too prodigal with their guns. After our great object-lesson in destruction which took place dur- ing the last three quarters of a century, when 98 per cent, of our native game was mped out, such a statement as the above is perhaps a bold one to make. But modern methods of legislation and conservation have satisfactorily demonstrated that it is possible to rejuvenate the reduced stock of game-birds to meet the increasing needs of the time. We have sufficient kinds of game-birds left, and if the sportsmen of the present and future will cooperate in their proper protection there will always be sufficient numbers. The Tragedy of the Water-Fowl This is not the place, however, to enter into a discussion of conservation and protection. In- stead we shall describe some of the causes which led the United States to turn so seriously to them. As has been stated, the early settlers discov- ered in America a veritable paradise of wild life, both animal and bird. The writers of that day were profuse in their expressions of wonder at its abundance. And most numerous of all were the water-fowl. The coastal bays were literally covered with ducks and banked with countless 240 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE droves of snowy geese, swans, and brant. Their multitudes made an inspiring sight. As the colonies grew older and became more firmly established, the settlers began to kill the water-fowl on a large scale. The demands of their increasing households called for greater slaughter. Many people owned slaves w^ho had to be fed. Wild ducks and geese were cheap and not difficult to procure, being easily trapped. Thou- sands were slain for food. They became a staple article of diet for slaves and indentured servants. They graced the tables of the landed proprietors. As a result of this excessive diet of water-fowl, the slaves on one estate in Maryland went on a strike, refusing to work until they received a promise that they should be fed no more wild ducks. And paid servants made an agreement with their masters that they should not be forced to eat canvasbacks more than twice a week ! But, great as the slaughter was, it failed to make a deep impression on the enormous flocks which in-. habited the great bays of the Atlantic coast. The killing continued without abatement throughout the early days of the United States, but as late as 1882 rafts of ducks a mile long were still observed in Chesapeake Bay. And by that time, during the open season for the birds, ten thousand people daily gunned along the shores and marshes which fringe that water. They were now using breech- loaders, and the toll upon the ducks was heavy. GAME-BIRDS 241 Bags of two hundred birds to a gun were not un- common. On the Pacific coast water-fowl were as numer- ous as on the Atlantic. Serious killing of them, however, did not begin until after the Civil War, but then, because of modern weapons, it proceeded rapidly. Snow geese in 1878 were so plentiful that crops to the amount of $200,000 were de- stroyed by them in one county of California. As recently as 1906 two men shot 450 geese in one day; but now, sixteen years later, the birds are scarce. Not one tenth the number of geese and ducks that showed themselves in California during their annual migrations fifty years ago show them- selves to-day. The story of water-fowl in the Middle West has been much the same. Fifty years ago the lakes and sloughs of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and other Central States teemed with tens of millions of ducks. Every stream and marsh was the feed- ing-spot of great flocks; the valley of the Missis- sippi lay in the direct line of migration of the birds which breed in upper Canada and places further north. Throughout the autumn months a steady stream flowed slowly south, sometimes darkening the sky with its multitudes. And these birds were killed by the hundred thousand. The pioneer settlers utilized them as food. Later, so-called sportsmen shot them for the sheer pleasure of killing and for their feathers ; 242 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE breech-loading shot-guns spelled their death. With the development of the Middle West, duck shooting came more and more into fashion. Each slough, each marsh, and every small water-hole became lined with blinds which hid scores of gun- ners. S'o fast did the birds arrive at the shooting grounds that a man might fire continuously from daylight to dark, or until the barrels of his gun were too hot to hold. There was little use for decoys in those days; the ducks were too numerous for the sportsmen to bother with putting them out. The ponds and sloughs were small — almost too small for all the ducks to crowd into. And seldom was the chance offered them except at night, and then their densely packed masses were likely to be mangled by the discharge of a cannon crammed with shot. This slaughter in the Middle West continued for nearly two generations, increasing as the years progressed and as more deadly arms were devel- oped. The result was inevitably the same as had overtaken the water-fowl everywhere else. Their ranks were thinned almost to obliteration. It is no longer possible for a man, even if he were per- mitted to do so by law, to obtain in two hours' shooting, a wagon-load of ducks. Thirty birds now represent a full and wholly satisfactory day ^s shoot. The surviving remnants of this once incalcul- able fauna of water-fowl still inhabit our coasts GAME-BIKDS 243 and inland waters. Ten years ago those rem- nants were meager indeed — a mere fraction of 1 per cent, of what they were a century earlier. Now, however, under the stimulus of revised State legislation and Federal protection, they show signs of recuperation; and it is possible that within another decade their numbers will be suffi- ciently recovered to preclude the possibility of extinction which so recently threatened. The Tragedy of the Shorebirds Shorebirds in America have followed the same trail as water-fowl. Their destruction was even more rapid than that of ducks, being accomplished in a much shorter time. The birds are compara- tively small and therefore for years were consid- ered unworthy of the expenditure of powder and shot. But, with the decrease of the supply of water-fowl and a proportionate enlargement of the army of market hunters and sportsmen, their doom was sealed. There was a time, scarcely a generation ago, when the yellowlegs, black-breasted plover, golden plover, and curlews very nearly rivaled in num- bers the great hosts of ducks. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Nova Scotia to Georgia, and Alaska to southern California, from July to November, literally swarmed with their southward-moving 244 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE throngs. Thousands of stilts, avocets, and cur- lews bred on the great marshes of California, and the great prairies were the home of more curlews. On the Atlantic shores the ocean beach appeared alive ^^^th countless millions of tiny, restless san- derlings, skirting the wave fringes on rapid tmn- kling feet, filling their little bodies with the minute Crustacea which burrowed there. Great flocks of minute sandpipers ranged the salt marshes. Mud flats were the feeding ground of thousands of wil- lets, curlew, robin-snipe, dowitchers, and stilts. And further inland the quiet of the fields was con- tinually broken by the oft-repeated call of the Bartramian sandpiper and the *'kil-kill-d-e-e-r !^' of the killdeer plover. But those days have been relegated to the past. Shorebirds have a nature too trusting for their own best welfare ; they love too well the company of their kind. Their calls are not difficult to imi- tate; and these, arising from the lips of the con- cealed hunter, together with the attractive array of decoys he has arranged on the flat near his blind, are sufficient to entice the unsuspecting birds to their destruction. Nor do they -seem to learn by experience to avoid gun-infested flats. Some species will return again and again to the wooden decoys, each time losing some of their number by gun-fire, until perhaps the flock is ex- terminated. Or, if excessively frightened the first time, they will leave that flat and proceed on their GAME-BIRDS 245 journey southward, only to forget their experience before an hour has passed and plunge eagerly into the decoys at the next blind they come to. It is not difficult, then, to understand why, in the days of unlimited game-bags, shorebirds lost the number of their mess. The tiny sandpipers, too small to shoot singly, could be mowed down by the score at a shot. The little surf sanderlings succumbed in the same manner, a hundred or two hundred constituting a day's shoot for one gun. Willets and curlew, because of their large size, were specially sought after, and some species met total extirpation. Robin-snipe (knots) were stu- pid enough not to be frightened by gun-fire and became virtually extinct ten years ago. Yellow- legs, black-breaated plover, and gfolden plover alone retain some semblance of their former num- bers, but these have been woefully reduced. Among the hills and valleys, on pastures and hay-fields, the upland plover met a like fate. The Bartramian sandpiper proved a warier bird than his brethren of the shore, but he finally fell victim to the gun in the hands of the farmer 's boy. Kill- deer still live, a remnant of their former strength, and at last are protected everywhere. But, like the water-fowl, shorebirds, although their numbers were once brought to a low ebb by market gunners and over-ambitious sportsmen, are showing signs of recovery. The Federal Government rigidly protects them. Two species 246 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE of yellowlegs and two of plover alone remain on the shooting list. All the others are compara- tively safe until their original numbers have been regained. And among those that return to our shores each spring and autumn in ever-increasing flocks are the curlew, knot, and willet, three birds which under short open seasons will provide ex- cellent shooting for the sportsmen of the future. The Tragedy of the Upland Birds Turning now to the true game-birds, as defined by English law, we come to the most important group which inhabits America. Outstanding among them is the wild turkey, the monarch of all game-fowl, and following close after are the grouse, including prairie chickens, and the ptar- migan and quail. When the Mayflower anchored off the coast of Massachusetts the wild turkey was to be found throughout all the forested regions of North America east of the Mississippi. But the size of the turkey unfortunately told against it. It was the only game-bird whose bodily proportions war- ranted the expenditure of a charge of powder and a bullet. Its flesh proved delicious and conse- quently was greatly sought after. As a result, even in colonial days, the turkey soon became scarce in the neighborhood of settlements. GAME-BIRDS 247 Thus, with the progress of the years, it became relegated more and more to the backwoods. As the forests were cleared and the country devel- oped it withdrew still further, until finally the native stock became entirely extinct in New Eng- land and, indeed, in all the northeastern States with the exception of Pennsylvania. Throughout the Middle West it has been extirpated — in Wis- consin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. These States form a dead-line from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and inclose a solid group of Southern territory where the turkey is still to be found in its native condition. The turkey is naturally a wary bird, always difficult to find and never easy to stalk. Unlike the prairie chicken, it never congregates in great flocks and therefore does not place itself in a posi- tion to invite wholesale slaughter. To-day it is carefully guarded in all the localities where it lives, and in most States only gobblers are permitted to be shot. There was once a day when the heath hen was one of the most plentiful game-birds in the north- eastern States, but that day is long past. Like the canvasbacks of the Chesapeake, the heath hens were delicious eating and were slaughtered for the market without thought of the future. Hun- dreds of thousands were shot or netted every year in New York, New Jersey, and New England, until suddenly there were no more birds to kill. And .248 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE when the Eastern States awoke to the fact that something must be done to preserve the species, it was too late. The heath hens were gone. The remnant, a paltry few hundred, alone still sur- vive at Martha ^s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Prairie chickens barely escaped the same fate. Inhabitants of the open prairies, crouching to a pointing dog and present in indefinite numbers, they are particularly eligible for the gun in the hands of the hunter. And as soon as the open land of the West had been settled, the hunter was not slow to take ad- vantage of the opportunity presented him. Pro- fessional hunters first sold the birds to the trains of emigrants which in the fifties and sixties wound across the great open plains ; then, as towns began to spring up, they disposed of them to the shop- keepers. Prairie chickens succumbed in thou- sands. Presently they were shot for sport; and their habit of gathering in large flocks cleared the way for their destroyers. Once a flock was discovered, continuous shooting was assured for the day. It was a common custom for so-called sportsmen — in reality ^'game-hogs'' — to drive to the shooting- ground in wagons and not to return home until the vehicles were filled with birds. If automobiles had been invented while chicken shooting was in its prime, the demise of the spe- cies would have followed much sooner. Several GAME-BIRDS 249 trips to and from town could have been made in a day and there would have been no difficulty in filling the cars each time. Prairie chickens indeed were unfortunate crea- tures, and yet, with the exception of the turkey, they w^ere the finest game-birds America pro- duced. Harassed by an ever-growing army of gunners who recognized this fact, but who through greediness would not relinquish their efforts to- ward extermination of the species, the birds were soon confronted by a second great enemy — the plow. The world had raised a cry for more wheat, and the alluvial soil of the prairies was re- sponding. The boundless miles of thick sod were being turned into waving oceans of brown grain. The days of prairie-fowl were numbered; their nests were disappearing beneath the plow. It perhaps was fortunate for the existence of the prairie-chickens that cultivation of the land did come. So great had been the slaughter from guns that their ranks had already been thinned ; in some localities they had, indeed, been extermi- nated. Guns, without a doubt, would soon have accounted for their total and irretrievable eradi- cation; but the process would have been gradual and scarcely seen by the sportsmen until it was too late to save the birds. With the arrival of the plow, however, the decrease of the chicken popula- tion was so rapid that the sportsman could not fail to observe it. The plow was something tangi- 250 THE IMPOETANCB OF BIRD LIFE ble to lay the blame against, — for what gunner could ever bring himself to blame his gun? — and before long legislative machinery was set in mo- tion which finally led to a closer protection of the birds. The open season for shooting was cut short, and, as the movement toward conservation grew, shooting was entirely prohibited in some States. Thus to-day, though there is but the slim- mest scattering of the birds left as compared with their former millions, it no longer seems possible that they will follow in the way of the heath hen. In the ruffed grouse we find almost as excellent a game-bird as the prairie chicken. Unlike the latter, it is a denizen of the forest, a lover of glades and berry patches. And, with the exception of Kansas, it still persists in every State that was originally its native home. Its numbers, however, are not as large as formerly. The colonials found the forests filled with birds but for many generations left them comparatively alone. It was with the arrival of the modern shot-gun that the grouse commenced seriously to suffer. Being naturally of a stupid, unsuspicious temperament, they at first took to the trees at the approach of the gunner and there easily fell vic- tim to his aim. MilHons were slaughtered in this way in a very few years, and in some localities the birds became scarce. The probable saving of their race was due to the fact that they dwelt in the deep forest, which was penetrated only by the GAME-BIRDS 251 big-game hunters. From this habit they ob- tained a sort of immunity, for the gunner would not spare time to hunt birds when there were bear, deer, or moose to be taken. But in localities where their ranks had been greatly thinned, a rapid change seemed to take place in the temperamental character of the ruffed grouse. Its blunted sense of fear seemed sud- denly to alter into extreme timidity. Where be- fore the bird had stupidly listened to the hunter's footsteps with scarcely a thought that they might presage danger, it now became a wild, wary, vigi- lant creature, that took alarm while the gunner was still a hundred yards off. It developed an expert knowledge of the art of dodging behind tree-trunks during flight and running before dogs until a dense thicket could be reached where it was possible to rise unseen, startling the gunner with the roar of its wings and never offering him a shot. It has proved one of those rare wild creatures which, if left alone, rapidly grows tame, but which, if much hunted, learns even more quickly to dodge and keep out of the way. It is due wholly to this quick assimilation of wildness that the ruffed grouse owes its longev- ity in thickly settled areas. In the forests of Maine and Michigan it is still plentiful and, be- cause it is not over-hunted, appears tame and stupid. But let the sportsman enter the forests of New Jersey, the Blue Ridge, or even the scrub- 252 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE oaks of Long Island, and while he may see or hear a dozen in a morning it is doubtful if he will obtain a full bag that day ; and he will report that there are plenty of birds. Now that the wild turkey and the prairie chicken have passed their zenith of popularity, the game-bird which supplied the most sport is the quail, represented in the East by the bob- white and in the West by the California quail and a few allied species. These birds are so in- significant in size that they escaped the weapons of sportsmen until the nineteenth century was well begun. Quail were immune while larger game remained near the settlements. The day came, however, — ^first on the Atlantic seaboard, then further inland, — when turkeys had grown scarce, heath hens were extinct, and ruffed grouse had withdrawn deep into the wood. Then followed the attack on the bob-white, a bird of the open thickets. By 1900 virtually all the north- eastern States had been cleared of this native spe- cies. A remnant of its former numbers remained here and there in isolated districts, but the race as a whole was on the verge of extinction. In the South, however, the bob-white held on. The cover there was denser, sportsmen were fewer, and there were still turkeys and other large game to be had. But, as the quail population waned in the North, sportsmen turned their atten- tion southward. Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, GAME-BIRDS 253 And Florida became vast slaughter grounds for the birds. Their numbers decreased, but the spe- cies clung to existence. Even to-day quail are still plentiful in the Southern States. Next to prairie chicken, quail present to the sportsman the ideal form of upland shooting. They are to be found in the overgrown fields or low open thickets in coveys of a dozen to twenty birds. A pointer or setter easily picks up their strong scent. They are not difficult to trail and afford an opportunity for the dogs to show up at their best. When the covey is shot into it scat- ters temporarily in all directions; single birds are then difficult to locate and strain the ingenuity both of men and dogs. Bob-white quail afford both pleasure and exercise to the sportsman; but unfortunately, unless more stringent laws are en- acted toward their preservation, there soon will be none left to shoot. The same condition is true of the California quail. These birds have been brought within the last thirty years to the very edge of extinction. Unlike the bob-white, their coveys sometimes consisted of as many as five hundred individu- als. N-ow the improvident gunner seldom sees more than one tenth of that number together. The remaining groups of official American game-birds are small and of far less importance than those already touched upon. Rails are es- sentially marsh birds, and, although fifteen are 254 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE listed as inhabiting the United States, only the Virginia and clapper rails hold any importance as game. They generally are shot when high tide floods the meadows which are their home, when they are prevented from running from the gunner and must seek safety in flight. Coots also belong to this same general group and in some localities are highly prized for their flesh. Pigeons as game-birds are no longer important. Fifty years ago, when the passenger pigeons were so numerous as to darken the sun at times with their flocks, they afforded an excellent mark for slaughter ; but those days are gone, and that bird is extinct. The killing of the Carolina dove is permitted in many Southern States, and until recently enormous numbers were annually slain. It was the custom to bait the birds by scattering grain. When the time was ripe a number of men would collect at the selected spot and thou- sands of doves would die. This practice, however^ has been discontinued almost everywhere. Again, the band-tailed pigeon* of California and neigh- boring States a few years ago bade fair to go the way of the passenger pigeon, but promiscuous shooting was stopped in time to save the species. The remaining birds of this group — mainly ground-doves — are immune because of their small size. GAME-BIRDS 255 Enemies of Game-Birds The weapons of man, however, are not the only agencies at work on the destruction of game-birds- Nature takes a hand now and then. Disease has been known to ravage prairie chickens, ruffed grouse, and quail throughout great areas of terri- tory, almost extirpating the birds from the in- fected regions. The ''grouse disease" has wiped out of existence tens of thousands of black game, grouse, and partridge in England and Europe. No less than ten million* wild ducks have died within the last five years in the reaches of Great Salt Lake from an intestinal trouble caused by the chemical constituents of the water. The dead can be counted in the marshes by the thousand; they drift in great masses upon the lake surface, and the sloughs in some localities cannot be ap- proached because of the horrible stench arising from them. Fires, next to disease, account for great num- bers of game-birds. The terrible prairie-fires which at one time swept across the plains car- ried destruction to multitudes of wild chickens. Not only were numerous birds burned, but their nests, eggs, and young were consumed. The great forest conflagrations in Maine and other wooded regions cause the death of thousands of 256 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE ruffed grouse. Some localities, as, for instance, Long Island, have been swept virtually clean of these birds by the burning of their forests. Next in importance come the depredations by birds of prey and vermin. Game-birds of the open lands are specially susceptible to their at- tacks. During the winter months, while snow lies deep on the ground, all ground-birds are par- ticularly liable to attack from the air. Their dark bodies show up well against the white background of snow, and they fall an easy prey to hawks. It is believed that the shortage of ruffed grouse a few years ago in the northeastern States was largely the result of an influx of predatory birds, mainly the great-horned owl and the goshawk, from the North. These meat-eating birds were driven south in search of food by a shortage of snow- shoe rabbits in the North. Lynxes, coyotes, foxes, minks, and weasels take a large toll of game-birds, although each one of them prefers some other kind of flesh if it can be easily obtained. Dogs, when permitted to roam at will, kill many birds, especially the young un- able to fly, and destroy large numbers of nests and eggs. Domestic cats grown wild, however, prove the greatest enemies of small birds, including the quail. They annually kill and devour several million valuable birds in the United States, and probably are accountable for more damage to the GAME-BIRDS 257 quail species than all the dogs, foxes, minks, and weasels combined. As has already been mentioned, the destruction of nests by cultivation has played havoc among the prairie birds. It has also aided materially in decreasing the number of quail. Virtually all game-birds have the unfortunate habit of nesting on the ground. The eggs generally are deposited just about the time the farmer is sharpening his plow-points for the spring plowing, and the nests are turned under, usually without his knowledge of their existence. At harvest time his mowing- machine is ready to catch the later broods. Finally, the automobile proves a deadly enemy of destruction. The employment of cars in hunt- ing is a serious menace to the existence of all game. With its power of eating up the miles, a greater number of birds is brought within reach of the gunner than is to be had by walking. The bags of game are increased, and the birds face extinction sooner. Dr. William T. Hornaday states the case quite clearly: ... I have seen them in action. A load of three or four gunners is whirled up to a likely mountain-side for ruffed grouse, and presently the banging begins. Af- ter an hour or so spent in combing out the birds, the hunters jump in, whirl away in a dust-cloud to another spot two miles away, and ' ' bang- bang-bang ' ' again. Af- ter that, a third locality; and so on, covering six or 258 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE eight times the territory that a man in a buggy or on foot, could possibly shoot over in the same time ! The use of automobiles in hunting wild-fowl is prohibited in North Dakota, alone of all our States. Protection and Conservation There is no bird-shooting sportsman alive in America who does not with a whole heart regret the demise of the heath hen, the Eskimo curlew, or the prairie chicken. He would give a great deal to sight one of those chickens over his gun- barrel, or sink his carving-knife once more into the luscious breast of a canvasback duck. He would delight in hearing the clear whistle of the bob-white in the fields back of his house. If he could shoot a wild turkey without having to travel to Arkansas or Florida to do it, he would be- lieve that the millennium of the sportsman had arrived. And yet he has permitted a -blight to overtake his birds. There is only one remedy, and he him- self must see that it is applied. That is in- creased protection and conservation of our wild game-bird resources. CHAPTER XIII GAME-LAWS 1. Laws of England. 2. Laws of America. 5. Evolution of Game-Laws in America. 4. State Game-Laws. 5, Federal Laws. 6. Effect of Game-Laws upon Birds. Laws of England The destruction of birds throughout the world for food has led to a wide diversity of opinion in different countries concerning their right to exis- tence. The question involved is a serious one for the birds. Some nations have it that they are the property of the individual citizen; others regard them as owned by the State, or at least held by the State in trust for the people as a whole. It is upon the latter principle that all effective game-law systems have been built up. In Italy, where all birds are considered the pri- vate property of any person who desires to take them, the Government is unable to make effective laws for their protection, even if it evinced any wish to do so. As free men the Italians claim the right to kill game whenever they please and wher- ever they please. Any attempt on the part of the 259 260 THE IMPOETANCE OF BIRD LIFE Government to curtail their liberty would be con- sidered a controversion of the rights of all free citizens. As a result there is scarcely a native bird left on the entire peninsula of Italy. Very ditferent, however, is the attitude of that sport-loving nation, England. The principle upon which she acts is that the killing of birds is subservient to laws formulated by the state; in other words, that birds primarily belong to the state and only secondarily to the private individ- uals upon whose land they may be found. The first English law for the protection of game of any kind was enacted during the time of William the Conqueror, forbidding the killing of deer by any persons except those who were of royal blood or who had special permission from the king. Later, in the reign of Richard II, deer or game-birds might be taken by socially fitted per- sons qualified by social position or by landed estates that brought them an income of more than £100 per annum. All game, however, was considered the property of the crown. Although most of the early game-laws were manifestly unfair to every one but the ruling power, they at least prevented a swift extermina- tion of birds and four-footed beasts. They em- bodied also the principle of state ownership of game, the foundation upon which modem British laws are based. Wild birds and animals now be- long to the land, and the Grovernment reserves GAME-LAWS 261 the right to devise laws for their protection and preservation. While landowners may claim title to any birds reared by artificial means, they can- not kill them except during specifically stated seasons. Birds thus reared, however, belong to the land on which they live, and any income derived from them goes to the property holder. In this way considerable sums are returned either by the sale of dead game in season or by leasing the shooting privileges of the land. To give some idea of the actual value in terms of money of these *^ shoot- ings,'' the gross rental of grouse moors in Eng- land and Scotland between 1905 and 1911 was estimated as returning £1,270,000 annually to their owners. While this system of game-laws tends to make it difficult for any person not endowed with wealth to shoot, it prevents the extinction of upland game which would follow if, in such a densely popu- lated country as England, every able-bodied man entered the field with a gun. Water-fowl, on the other hand, are entirely the property of the state, and any one may shoot them if he will pay the license fee required. 2 Laws of America The present American game-law system, though 262 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE based on the same principle, that all birds belong to the state and not to the individual, differs mate- rially from that of Great Britain. Owing to the immense territorial size of the United States and its comparatively sparse population, this country has been enabled to devise certain variations in the British system which are more equitable to the people as a whole. On the other hand, there are many excellent points of the British system which are woefully lacking in America. The American form of government differs from anything else of its kind in the world. Our United States are literally States within a state, and each State reserves certain rights for itself. These States* rights, unfortunately, include, among other things, the power to make game-laws to fit their own requirements regardless of how they may atfect neighboring States. Thus, a generation ago, the closed season for ducks in Minnesota might be paralleled by an open season in Iowa, or vice versa. Woodcock might be shot in New Jersey during July, but not until September in New York. Birds which, during the migration seasons, traveled from one State to an- other could find no permanent peace, and a general thinning of their ranks was the result. Upon the gallinaceous game-birds, such as grouse, turkeys, and quail, these ill-matched State laws did not have the same effect. The birds GAME-LAWS 263 were not migratory; they lived their lives in the locality where they were born, and they rightfully belonged to their home State. But with ducks, shore-birds, pigeons, and snipe the facts were en- tirely different; no one State could call them its own; they might visit a dozen States during the year. This chaotic condition of State game-laws was finally recognized by the Federal Government as highly detrimental to the life of the migratory species, and after some hesitation the Government established game-laws of its own. It asserted that all migratory birds which traversed several States during the flying season were its property — that they belonged to the United States as a whole and not to any single individual State. Federal laws were accordingly passed for their protection. These laws were presently upheld in the United States Supreme Court and now form the founda- tion of the present system of protection for migra- tory game-birds. The individual States, however, still retain their right to control the non-migratory species, whether native or introduced into their territory. Thus there are to-day two kinds of game-laws in the United States : the State and the Federal. Dr. T. S. Palmer of the United States Biolog- ical Survey set forth in ^^Bird Lore'' in 1902 a 264 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE list of principles "apon which the game-laws then depended.^ These are much the same to-day, ex- cept that the control of some birds has passed ont of the hands of the State into those of the Fed- eral Government. Those slight alterations are indicated by italics in the following table of Dr. Palmer's principles; (a) State Laws 1. All non-migratory wild birds are the property of the state ; hence : 2. Killing of birds is a privilege, not a right. 3. State ownership of birds carries with it the right to impose restriction ; hence : 4. Birds may be captured, possessed, transported, bought, or sold only under such conditions as the State prescribes. 5. Landowners have no more right to kill birds out of season than other persons, unless the law specifically grants this privilege. (b) Federal Laws 6. All migratory birds, native or otherwise, are the property of the United States; hence: 7. State restrictions concerning them pass to the Fed- eral Government. 8. Non-migratory birds are protected by the Federal law only when shipped from or into a State which pro- tects them by a local law. 9. Birds killed or shipped contrary to law in any State cannot lawfully be transported to other States. 10. Birds brought into a State become subject to its i"Bird Lore"; Vol. Ill, pp. 70-81. GAME-LAWS 265 laws in the same manner and to the same extent as birds produced in that State. 11. Packages of birds shipped from one State to an- other must be marked so as to show the name of the shipper and the nature of the contents. 12. Foreign birds can be imported into the United States only under permits from the United States De- partment of Agriculture, and birds declared injurious by the Secretary of Agriculture cannot be imported into the United States or shipped from one State to another. These, then, are the principles upon whicli our present game-laws work; but first, before enter- ing into a discussion of their merits, let us see how they were evolved. Evolution of Game-Laws in America It is not quite certain when the first game-law was established and enforced in the American colonies. Sunday shooting, because of religious scruples, was early prohibited in several colonies. While the eighteenth century was still young, a short closed season for turkeys, heath hens, ruffed grouse, and quail had been enacted in New York. Massachusetts in 1710 prohibited the use of boats or canoes with sails, or boats dressed in grass, for the hunting of water-fowl. Gradually all the colonies developed some sort of code, so that by the close of the colonial period 266 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE at least twelve of them had enacted game-laws, insufficient though they were. These were the forerunners of the later State laws. The early game-laws, though entirely in- adequate for the true protection of game, were steps in the right direction. Although at the time of her inception as a nation the United States was the great exponent of the rights of man, she recog- nized from the beginning that game should belong to the state and not the individual. By incorpo- rating her colonial laws as State laws she at once diverged from the line which Italy later was to follow — ^and ultimately saved a fraction of her game. By the opening year of the nineteenth century fourteen States had made some attempt at game legislation; in 1850 nineteen had game-laws; in 1860, thirty-one ; and by 1870, forty-one. But the laws were ineffective; their enforcement was lax, and little real protection was afforded to game. This applied to birds in particular; they were plentiful and little protection was considered necessary. Reforms, however, were not far off. Begin- ning with 1872, the old system of long open sea- sons and *^kill as many birds as you can '^ began to give way. In that year Maryland opened the new era by providing rest days for wild-fowl, an ex- ample followed by New Jersey in 1879, when she also prohibited the killing of water-fowl from GAME-LAWS 267 boats propelled by sail or steam. Market hunting was stopped in Arkansas in 1875, and a bag-limit law passed the legislature of Iowa in 1878. Cali- fornia and New Hampshire established game com- missions in the latter year. Non-resident shoot- ing-licenses were required in New Jersey by 1873 — the same year in which New York published the first game-laws in pamphlet form — and in Dela- ware in 1879. The reforms of the next decade were equally numerous. The model law for the protection of non-game birds was drawn up by the American Ornithologists^ Union and acted upon by New York in 1886 and by Pennsylvania in 1889. Eighteen eighty-seven saw in Michigan, Minne- sota, and Wisconsin the appointment of the first salaried game-wardens. In Wisconsin birds were no longer allowed to be shot for millinery pur- poses, and in Delaware there was to be no more hunting in the snow. Michigan in 1891 regulated the training of dogs on game-birds out of season. Four years later the resident hunting-license system had been in- stalled in several States, and by the end of the decade dove-baiting was prohibited in Georgia. The famous Lacey Act, regulating interstate com- merce in game, became a federal law in 1900. Pennsylvania in 1907 placed a ban on the auto- matic shot-gun, being the first State to do so. By the end of the following year a number of States 268 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE had begun to pay attention to the propagation of game. Then, in 1913, the Migratory Bird Act was passed by Congress, and in 1916 the international treaty between Canada and the United States, concerning the protection of migratory birds, was ratified. And finally, from the beginning of the twentieth century down to the present day, there has been given an increased amount of atten- tion to the setting aside of federal and state game preserves. The cry for conservation now — 1922 — is making itself widely heard. This, in brief, is the evolution of the game-laws of the United States. As soon as a reform was found to be of benefit in one State, it was taken up by others. And thus there has gradually arisen a good workable code applicable to all States, which, though needing in the future the addition of a few minor reforms, — such as the shortening still further of the shooting seasons and a nar- rower limitation of game-bags, — now proves equi- table to sportsmen and game alike. The passage of the Lacey Act marked the beginning of federal control of game, a control which later was to prove greatly beneficial to migratory birds. It is doubtful, however, if the Federal Government can ever take over the management of non-migra- tory birds without infringing upon the so-