CIVILIZATION'S EFFECT ON THE BIRD SUPPLY
Twelve hundred kinds of wild birds have been positively identified in
North America. About one-third of this number are called sub-species,
or climatic varieties. To illustrate the meaning of "sub-species," it
may be stated that in Texas the plumage of the Bob-White is lighter in
colour than the plumage of the typical eastern Bob-White, which was
first described to science; therefore, the Texas bird is known as a
sub-species of the type. Distributed through North America are
nineteen sub-species of the eastern Song Sparrow. These vary from the
typical bird by differences in size and shades of marking. In a
similar way there are nine climatic variations of Screech Owls, six
Long-billed Marsh Wrens, and fourteen Horned Larks. It is {121}
difficult to explain why this variation in colour and size is so
pronounced in some species and yet is totally absent in others of
equally wide range. The Mourning Dove breeds in many localities from
the southern tier of Canadian Provinces southward throughout the United
States and Mexico, and yet everywhere over this vast range the birds
are the same in size and colour. Nowhere do the individuals exhibit
any markings suggestive of climatic influences.
Some birds are very rare and are admitted to the list of North American
species because of the fact that during the years a few stragglers from
other parts of the world have been found on our continent. Thus the
Scarlet Ibis from South America, and the Kestrel and Rook from western
Europe, are known to come to our shores only as rare wanderers who had
lost their way, or were blown hither by storms. Eighty-five species of
the birds now listed for North America are of this extra-limital class.
Among those naturally inhabiting the country, some are, of course, much
more abundant than others, thus every one {122} knows that Bald Eagles
are comparatively rare, and that Robins and Chipping Sparrows exist by
millions.
_The Number of Birds in Different States._--The number of kinds of
birds found in any one State depends on the size of the State, its
geographical situation, and the varieties of its climate as affected by
the topography in reference to mountains, coastlines, etc. The number
of bird students and the character of their field studies determine the
extent to which the birds of a State have been catalogued and listed.
The following list indicates the number of kinds of birds that have
been recorded in forty-three of the States and the District of
Columbia. The authority for the statement in each instance and the
year in which the figures were given is also stated:
_Alabama_, 275 (Oberholser, 1909).
_Arizona_, 371 (Cooke, 1914).
_Arkansas_, 255 (Howell, 1911).
_California_, 541 (Grinnell, 1916).
_Colorado_, 403 (Cooke, 1912).
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_Connecticut_, 334 (Sage and Bishop, 1913).
_Delaware_, 229 (Rennock, 1908).
_District of Columbia_, 293 (Cooke, 1913).
_Florida_, 362 (Thurston, 1916).
_Idaho_, 210 (Merrill, 1898).
_Illinois_, 390 (Cory, 1909).
_Indiana_, 321 (Butler, 1898).
_Iowa_, 356 (Anderson, 1907).
_Kansas_, 379 (Bunker, 1913).
_Kentucky_, 228 (Garman, 1894).
_Louisiana_, 323 (Byer, Allison, Kopman, 1915).
_Maine_, 327 (Knight, 1908).
_Maryland_, 290 (Kirkwood, 1895).
_Massachusetts_, 369 (Howe and Allen, 1901).
_Michigan_, 326 (Barrows, 1912).
_Minnesota_, 304 (Hatch, 1892).
_Missouri_, 383 (Widmann, 1907).
_Nebraska_, 418 (Swenk, 1915).
_Nevada_, 250 (Hoffman, 1881).
_New Hampshire_, 283 (Allen, 1904).
_New Jersey_, 358 (Stone, 1916).
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_New Mexico_, 314 (Ford, 1911).
_New York_, 412 (Eaton, 1914).
_North Carolina_, 342 (Pearson and Brimley, '16).
_North Dakota_, 338 (Schmidt, 1904).
_Ohio_, 330 (Jones, 1916).
_Oregon_, 328 (Woodcock, 1902).
_Pennsylvania_, 300 (Warren, 1890).
_Rhode Island_, 293 (Howe and Sturtevant, 1899).
_South Carolina_, 337 (Wayne, 1910).
_Tennessee_, 223 (Rhoads, 1896).
_Texas_, 546 (Strecker, 1912).
_Utah_, 214 (Henshaw, 1874).
_Vermont_, 255 (Howe, 1902).
_Virginia_, 302 (Rives, 1890).
_Wellington_, 372 (Dawson, 1909).
_West Virginia_, 246 (Brooks, 1913).
_Wisconsin_, 357 (Kumlien and Hollister, 1903).
_Wyoming_, 288 (Knight, 1902).
For the five remaining States no list of the birds has as yet been
issued.
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_Increase of Garden and Farm Birds._--The effect of civilization on the
bird life of North America has been both pronounced and varied in
character. Ask almost any one over fifty years of age if there are as
many birds about the country as there were when he was a boy, and
invariably he will answer "No!" This reply will be made, not because
all birds have decreased in numbers, but because there has come a
change in the man's ideas and viewpoint; in short, the change is
chiefly a psychological one. The gentleman doubtless does not see the
birds as much as he did when he was a boy on a farm, or if he does,
they do not make the same impression on his mind. It is but another
example of the human tendency to regard all things as better in the
"good old times." Let us turn then from such well-meant but inaccurate
testimony, and face the facts as they exist. I have no hesitation in
saying that with many species of Finches, Warblers, Thrushes, and
Wrens, their numbers in North America have greatly increased since the
first coming of the white men to our shores.
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It is a fact well known to careful observers that the deep, unbroken
forests do not hold the abundance of bird life that is to be found in a
country of farmlands, interspersed with thickets and groves.
Originally extensive regions of eastern North America were covered with
forests wherein birds that thrive in open countries could not find
suitable habitation. As soon as the trees were cut the face of the
country began to assume an aspect which greatly favoured such species
as the Bobolink, Meadowlark, Quail, Vesper Sparrow, and others of the
field-loving varieties. The open country brought them suitable places
to nest, and agriculture increased their food supply. The settlers
began killing off the wolves, wild cats, skunks, opossums, snakes, and
many of the predatory Hawks, thus reducing the numbers of natural
enemies with which this class of birds has to contend.
When the swamp is drained it means that the otter, the mink, and the
Wild Duck must go, but the meadowland that takes the place of the swamp
{127} provides for an increased number of other species of wild life.
[Illustration: Passenger Pigeons Are Now Extinct]
_Effect of Forest Devastation._--Only in a comparatively few cases has
bird life suffered from the destruction of forests. In parts of the
Middle West the Woodpeckers have no doubt decreased in {128} numbers.
There are places where one may travel for many miles without seeing a
single grove in which these birds could live.
Passenger Pigeons as late as 1870 were frequently seen in enormous
flocks. Their numbers during the periods of migration was one of the
greatest ornithological wonders of the world. Now the birds are gone.
What is supposed to have been the last one died in captivity in the
Zoological Park of Cincinnati at 2 P. M. on the afternoon of September
1, 1914. Despite the generally accepted statement that these birds
succumbed to the guns, snares, and nets of hunters, there is a second
cause which doubtless had its effect in hastening the disappearance of
the species. The cutting away of vast forests where the birds were
accustomed to gather and feed on mast greatly restricted their feeding
range. They collected in enormous colonies for the purpose of rearing
their young, and after the forests of the Northern States were so
largely destroyed the birds seem to have been driven far up into
Canada, quite {129} beyond their usual breeding range. Here, as
Forbush suggests, the summer probably was not sufficiently long to
enable them to rear their young successfully.
[Illustration: Window "Caféteria," at home of Mrs. Granville Pike,
North Yakima, Washington. The birds here seen at their lunch are the
Goldfinch, Housefinch, and Oregon Junco.]
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the largest member of the Woodpecker
family found in the United States, is now nearly extinct. There are
some in the wilder regions of Florida, and a few in the swamps of upper
Louisiana, but nowhere does the bird exist in numbers. It has been
thought by some naturalists that the reduction of the forest areas was
responsible for this bird's disappearance, but it is hard to believe
that this fact alone was sufficient to affect them so seriously, for
the birds live mainly in swamps, and in our Southern States there are
extensive lowland regions that remain practically untouched by the
axeman. For some reason, however, the birds have been unable to
withstand the advance of civilization, and like the Paroquet, the
disappearance of which is almost equally difficult to explain, it will
soon be numbered with the lengthening list of species that have passed
away.
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The Commercializing of Birds.--With the exceptions noted above the
birds that have noticeably decreased in numbers in North America are
those on whose heads a price has been set by the markets. Let a demand
once arise for the bodies or the feathers of a species, and immediately
a war is begun upon it that, unless speedily checked, spells disaster
for the unfortunate bird.
_The Labrador Duck and Others._--A hundred years ago the Labrador Duck,
known to Audubon as the "Pied Duck," was abundant in the waters of the
North Atlantic, and it was hunted and shot regularly in fall, winter,
and spring, along the coast of New England and New York. Their
breeding grounds were chiefly on the islands and along the shores of
Labrador, as well as on the islands and mainland about the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. Any one over forty years of age will remember how very
popular feather beds used to be. In fact, there are those of us who
know from experience that in many rural sections the deep feather bed
is still regarded as the _pièce de {131} resistance_ of the careful
householder's equipment. There was a time when the domestic poultry of
New England did not furnish as great a supply of feathers as was
desired. Furthermore, "Eider down" was recognized as the most
desirable of all feathers for certain domestic uses.
A hundred and fifty years ago New England sea-faring men frequently
fitted out vessels and sailed to the Labrador coast in summer on
"feather-voyages." The feathers sought were those of the Labrador Duck
and the Eider. These adventurous bird pirates secured their booty
either by killing the birds or taking the down from the nests. The
commercializing of the Labrador Duck meant its undoing. The last one
known to have been taken was killed by a hunter near Long Island, New
York, in 1875. Forty-two of these birds only are preserved in the
ornithological collections of the whole world.
Another species which succumbed to the persistent persecution of
mankind was the Great Cormorant that at one time was extremely abundant
in the {132} northern Pacific and Bering Sea. They were killed for
food by Indians, whalers, and others who visited the regions where the
birds spend the summer. The Great Cormorant has been extinct in those
waters since the year 1850.
Great Auks were once numbered literally by millions in the North
Atlantic. They were flightless and exceedingly fat. They were easily
killed with clubs on the breeding rookeries, and provided an acceptable
meat supply for fishermen and other toilers of the sea; also their
feathers were sought. They were very common off Labrador and
Newfoundland. Funk Island, especially, contained an enormous breeding
colony.
For years fishermen going to the Banks in early summer depended on Auks
for their meat supply. The birds probably bred as far south as
Massachusetts, where it is known a great many were killed by Indians
during certain seasons of the year. However, it was the white man who
brought ruin to this magnificent sea-fowl, for the savage Indians were
{133} too provident to exterminate any species of bird or animal. The
Great Auk was last seen in America between 1830 and 1840, and the final
individual, so far as there is any positive record, was killed off
Iceland in 1841. About eighty specimens of this bird, and seventy
eggs, are preserved in the Natural History collections of the world.
[Illustration: The Great Auk, Another Extinct Bird]
The Trumpeter Swan and the Whooping Crane are nearly extinct to-day.
Constant shooting and {134} the extensive settling of the prairies of
the Northwest have been the causes of their disappearance.
_Diminution of Other Species._--Of the fifty-five kinds of Wild Ducks,
Geese, and Swans commonly found in North America, there is probably not
one as numerous to-day as it was a hundred or even fifty years ago.
Why? The markets where their bodies commanded a price of so much per
head have swallowed them up. The shotgun has also played havoc with
the Prairie Chicken and the Sage Grouse. Of the former possibly as
many as one thousand exist on the Heath Hen Reservation of Martha's
Vineyard, Massachusetts, a pitiful remnant of the eastern form of the
species. Even in the Prairie States wide ranges of country that
formerly knew them by tens of thousands now know them no more.
We might go farther and note also the rapidly decreasing numbers of the
Sandhill Crane and the Limpkin of Florida. They are being shot for
food. The large White Egret, the Snowy Egret, and the Roseate
Spoonbill are found in lessening numbers each {135} year because they
have been commercialized. There is a demand in the feather trade which
can be met only by the use of their plumage, and as no profitable means
has been devised for raising these birds in captivity the few remaining
wild ones must be sacrificed, for from the standpoint of the killers it
is better that a few men should become enriched by bird slaughter than
that many people should derive pleasure from the birds which add so
much beauty and interest to the landscape.
_Change of Nesting Habits._--The nesting habits of some birds have been
revolutionized by the coming of civilization to the American
wilderness. The Swallow family provides three notable examples of
this. The Cliff Swallow and Barn Swallow that formerly built their
nests on exposed cliffs now seek the shelter of barns and other
outbuildings for this purpose. The open nest of the Barn Swallow is
usually found on the joists of hay barns and large stables and not
infrequently on similar supports of wide verandas. The Cliff Swallow
builds its gourd-shaped {136} mud nest under the eaves and hence is
widely known as the Eaves Swallow. No rest of any kind in the form of
a projecting beam is needed, as the bird skilfully fastens the mud to
the vertical side of the barn close up under the overhanging roof. In
such a situation it is usually safe from all beating rains. The Cliff
Swallow has exhibited wisdom to no mean extent in exchanging the more
or less exposed rocky ledge for the safety of sheltering eaves.
Swallows show a decided tendency to gather in colonies in the breeding
season. Under the eaves of a warehouse on the cost of Maine I once
counted exactly one hundred nests of these birds, all of which appeared
to be inhabited. Examination of another building less than seventy
feet away added thirty-seven occupied nests to the list.
The nesting site of the Purple Martin has likewise been changed in a
most radical fashion. Originally these birds built their nests of
leaves, feathers, and grass, in hollow trees. Here no doubt they were
often disturbed by weasels, squirrels, snakes, and {137} other
consumers of birds and their eggs. Some of the southern Indians hung
gourds up on poles and the Martins learned to build their nests in
them. This custom is still in vogue in the South, and thousands of
Martin houses throughout the country are erected every year for the
accommodation of these interesting birds. By their cheerful
twitterings and their vigilance in driving from the neighbourhood every
Hawk and Crow that ventures near, they not only repay the slight effort
made in their behalf, but endear themselves to the thrifty
chicken-raising farm-wives of the country.
If gourds or boxes cannot be found Martins will sometimes build about
the eaves of buildings or similar places. They have learned that it is
wise to nest near human habitations. At Plant City, Florida, one may
find their nests in the large electric arc-lights swinging in the
streets, and at Clearwater, Florida, and in Bismarck, North Dakota,
colonies nest under the projecting roofs of store buildings.
I have always been interested in finding nests of {138} birds, but I
think no success in this line ever pleased me quite so much as the
discovery of two pairs of Purple Martins making their nests one day in
May, down on the edge of the Everglade country in south Florida. There
were no bird boxes or gourds for at least twenty or thirty miles
around, so the birds had appropriated some old Flicker nesting cavities
in dead trees, that is, one pair of the birds had appropriated a
disused hole, and the second pair was busy trying to carry nesting
material into a Flicker's nest from which the young birds had not yet
departed. Here then were Martins preparing to carry on their domestic
duties just as they did back in the old primeval days.
The discussion of this subject could not well be closed without
mentioning the Chimney Swift that now almost universally glues to the
inner side of a chimney, or more rarely the inner wall of some
building, the few little twigs that constitute its nest. It is only in
the remotest parts of the country that these birds still resort to
hollow trees for nesting purposes. {139} There is--or was a few years
ago--a hollow cypress tree standing on the edge of Big Lake in North
Carolina which was used by a pair of Chimney Swifts, and it made one
feel as if he were living in primitive times to see these little dark
birds dart downward into a hollow tree, miles and miles away from any
friendly chimney. Some day I hope to revisit the region and find this
natural nesting hollow still occupied by a pair of unmodernized Swifts.
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