. Bulletin (Pennsylvania Game Commision), no. 7. Game protection; Birds. 24 come of civilization. But had care been used, when it was possible, some of our vanished birds might still be with us. We do not always realize that in killing certain birds and mam- mals we thereby proportionately increase their destruction by natural enemies, since these enemies, when permitted to live, have a smaller supply of their normal food to depend upon and must therefore draw more heavily on what is left. Thus when we find Great Horned Owls killing- Ruffed Grouse to the point of extermination we some- times f
. Bulletin (Pennsylvania Game Commision), no. 7. Game protection; Birds. 24 come of civilization. But had care been used, when it was possible, some of our vanished birds might still be with us. We do not always realize that in killing certain birds and mam- mals we thereby proportionately increase their destruction by natural enemies, since these enemies, when permitted to live, have a smaller supply of their normal food to depend upon and must therefore draw more heavily on what is left. Thus when we find Great Horned Owls killing- Ruffed Grouse to the point of extermination we some- times forget that through our efforts skunks, rabbits, and other normal foods mav have been so reduced that the owls are forced to live almost altogether on the grouse. This is. however, no justi- fication for permitting the owls to cause an extermination of VALUABLE BIRDS KILLED BY A FOREIGNER 4 Robins (1 to 4); 1 Flicker (5); 2 Hairy Woodpeckers (6 to 7); 13 Cedar Wax- wings (8 to 20); 1 Purple Finch (21); 1 Phoebe (22). The foreign element in our population is a serious enemy of bird- life. Chief among these offenders are the Italians. The people of that classically esteemed nation have so long regarded their smallest and most beautiful birds as desirable onlv for food that the whole Italian peninsula is almost devoid of birds—a thing which is pain- fully evident to the traveller there. This is the result not so much of a perverted or undeveloped sense of justice as it is of laziness. The food problem is an important one w^ith peasants everywhere, and the Italians have chosen to make their song-birds directly val- uable as a food item. These Italians in America are sometimes difficult to deal with, since they are temperamental in nature, and resent interference. Lentil they learn that our birds are regarded as more valuable alive in the woods than as food in the pot, they wm'11 25 have to be handled by the law until the truth dawns upon them— namely that our valuation
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