DESTRUCTION OF BIRD LIFE.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 156, 11 July 1911, Page 2

DESTRUCTION OF BIRD LIFE.

Thirty years ago there were millions of white herons in the United States. To-day only a few colonies, guarded by armed warders, are left When the egrets of China had been exterminated dealers fell back on Venezuela, where they kill between a million and two million birds a year. So, too, the gulls and terns on the east coast of America have been practically exterminated, and the present bird reservations have probably come too late. Some years ago there was a rage for humming birds in hats. While that fashion was at its height one dealer received from the West Indies 400,000 skins in a year. Several species were swept out of existence before the fashion changed. The bird of paradise has almost disappeared ; previous to 1907 two Chinese traders were exporting 12,000 skins every three months. Seabirds likewise fell a victim to the hunter; albatross wings are collected by the hundred thousand, and the albatross is by no means a prolific bird.