26

OUT BV 1998

8637.

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 30, 1892.

THE EFFECTS OF CIVILIZATION ON OUR BIRDS.

BY MORRIS GIBBS, M.D.

IN scanning the notes of any reliable observer, in the ornithological field, of twenty years' standing, one of the most noteworthy features presented is found in the many allusions to the frequency or infrequency of various species formerly abundant or unknown. We find numerous notes like this: "Seldom seen; formerly abundant," or, more rarely, "common; exceedingly rare years ago." These conflicting notes are of peculiar interest to everyone in any way concerned in the welfare of a community, and cannot fail to excite speculation among those who have noted the changes. The changes, either gradual or sudden, have resulted from natural or unnatual causes in many and devious ways. Unnatural is a word perhaps improperly used here, even allowing that civilization has eradicated many species from the globe. We had best look at man only in the light of an animal when we are to compare him in nature, and we can but acknowledge that the civilized state is simply in advance, and, in which we are simply better adapted to perform the work of extermination or cultivation.

It is easy to account for the appearance or disappearance of some species, and, with many, the reasons assigned are so selfevident that the generally accepted theories are rarely disputed. With our game birds, it is duly acknowledged by all capable of reasoning that the cause of the disappearance, as in the case of the wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, from well-populated districts, is entirely due to persecution by the gunners. However, there are many cases of unlooked-for changes; increase or decrease of numbers, for which we are not fully able to account. The writer, having carefully studied the subject for ten years, and with the assistance of nearly a quarter of a century of his own observations, feels confident in presenting some conclusions. These deductions may not be correct, but may at least promote investigation and inquiry into the subject by others more capable of explaining.

The causes of local change, in scarcity or abundance, as regards animal life, varying migrating routes, and ultimate disappearance, or other reasons, are many and peculiar, but may, I think, be grouped collectively under the following two heads :—

I. Natural causes, or features arising from other causes than those resulting from civilization. These are many, so far as we are able to judge, but are hardly to be considered here. They come under that division normally included in the evolutionist's province.

II. Unnatural causes, or those changes occurring from causes aside from the direct effects of nature; that is, more through the direct effects of civilization. These various changes may be discussed under the following divisions; remembering always that the system, as a whole, depends on the changes resulting from

that contribute in a greater or less measure towards this end. Anyone of an observing turn must have noticed the multitude of ways which help towards decimation. A few causes may be mentioned from the innumerable series to only suggest the dangers of proximity of the habitations of man. The light-houses of our great lakes and coasts kill many thousands each year, and perhaps hundreds of thousands, the birds killing themselves by dashing against the lights when migrating seasonally. It may well be doubted if there exists an invention, with the exception of the gun, more deadly to the birds than the electric light. Then there is the head-light of the locomotive, and the very destructive telegraph and other wires, which form a net work throughout the country. In fact, there is hardly a cause from which man himself dies, through accident or design, which does not likewise destroy our birds. Hanging, drowning, and cremation are not rare causes of their taking off. Fires in particular are damaging means each year, particularly when occurring in wild half-clearings, stubblefields, and virgin forests, in the spring and summer; but perhaps the most destructive fires are those that ravage large prairie sections where the prairie species nest. Without a doubt, early settlers, both in wooded as well as prairie lands, are guilty of a fearful devastation to both song and game birds in their efforts to clear up and improve the land.

As far south as I have been in the United States, and our line extends nearly to the tropics, and on the north to Lake Superior, I have met with plumage collectors for the "dear ladies'" wants. The blue-jay, tanager, and oriole cannot migrate too far north in our land to escape persecution in behalf of that travelling sideshow, the feminine head-gear, and no matter where you go in the south, if it is in the everglades of Florida, you will find the plumehunter busy for the almighty dollar, which he frequently gathers by shooting the parent birds at their nesting-sites, leaving the squabs to starve in their nests. One man (?) told me that he had shot two hundred white and snowy herons at one rookery in southern Florida; and this all for the money paid by vain, selfadorning women. Perhaps I have said more than is required on this subject, but many will not think an excuse necessary.

It is hardly worth while speaking of the destruction of game and other birds by the gun, net, and trap, as these methods of extinction have been so thoroughly canvassed that they are at least understood by all reasonable men. The havoc made on our wild pigeons with the set net is well known, and the sentiment is voiced by all that we would still have plenty of pigeons had the nets not been used, contrary to law, near the breeding-grounds.

Although so many species are noticeably diminished in numbers through the advent of advancing civilization, there are a number of birds which have become much more abundant, and a few even which have become residents or occasional or annual visitors, which were formerly not found in this section. Among them, here in Michigan, the most remarkable are in the cases of the robin, crow, black-throated bunting, meadow lark, orchard oriole, and turkey buzzard. All of these species were unknown near Kalamazoo in 1832, though they may have been recorded from the vicinity of Detroit, which was a much older settlement. About the year 1835 the robin appeared, lured hither by the social relations which have ever existed between civilization and these pleasing birds. The crow did not arrive till 1850 or later, and was not common till 1875, yet now it bids fair to become as great a nuisance in our State as it has proven in the East. The old settlers assert that the orchard oriole and meadow lark were not here at an early day, and though we cannot attest when they did first appear, we are convinced that it is through the influence of civilization that they are so abundant now. In this, Kalamazoo, county the black-throated bunting was unknown twenty years past, yet the notes dick sissel sissel may now be heard from almost

every clover-field, in June, in Michigan, south of 43 degrees. About 1870 a specimen of the turkey buzzard was captured here, and for a long time this note was unique, but within the last few years they have become regular summer visitors, and they have been found nesting at about 43° north latitude, on Lake Michigan's shore. There are dozens of other instances of cases where birds formerly unknown hereabouts, or but rarely met with, have, within the last twenty years or so, become comparatively common, or even abundant.

The second civilized cause of the unnatural means of change, namely, removal of forests, is remarkable in its effects, and yet, although more birds are forced to leave neighborhoods totally denuded than there are new species to occupy the locality, still a county about two-thirds cleared and well peopled is sure to embrace more species of birds than is one with its trees all standing. In a four years' residence at the north and in a new county, I was, although on the alert, and daily making notes, able to secure a list of only one hundred and twenty-odd species; while here, in a district inhabited over twice as long, and with over nineteentwentieths of the area cleared, I have a list of over one hundred greater.

A locality where the trees were all felled would not contain a hawk, owl, woodpecker, grouse, warbler, fly-catcher, jay, crow, and many other species; but there are also many species, as housewrens, barn and eave-swallows, chimney swifts, robins, bluebirds, sparrows, and finches of several kinds, kingfishers, and all the plovers, snipes, sandpipers, ducks, geese, and divers, which could remain with us, and many of which would not appear at all if the country was covered with forest.

The only species which I am satisfied are disappearing rapidly from the devastation of forests are the black woodpecker and wild turkey; of these, both once common, the turkey is being exterminated, while the log-cock has sought other quarters and is seldom seen here now. The raven, once abundant hereabouts, has gone forever, while its place is taken by its near relative, the crow, which was once not found in this locality.

Perhaps under this heading we may properly mention that group of birds which have modified their nesting habits to suit the requirements in order to associate with man, and, as we might say, secure his protection. A remarkable instance is that of the so-called cliff-swallow, a bird which has appropriated the space around buildings under the eaves, and which is well known to the boys as the eave-swallow. It is impossible to say how long this modification has existed, but certainly not longer than three centuries, for even now the species clings to its primitive choice of location in the west, still sticking its mud-pellet habitation to the cliffs. The white bellied swallow, house-wren, white-bellied nut-hatch, and blue-bird, all have modified their nesting habits to an extent, and occasionally occupy boxes and other receptacles placed for their accommodation. The common pewee boldly enters our barns, out-houses, and even attempts to occupy a nook on the front porch, from which it is unceremoniously ousted. Some years ago I found two pewee's nests built in the original style; they were attached to the roots of overturned trees. This was undoubtedly the primitive method of the pewee, until the fortunate appearance of civilized man, when little pewee quickly came to know an advantage, and he adopted build.ngs and bridges instead of overturned tree-roots.

The barn-swallow must have adopted the custom of building in the peaks of buildings many generations ago, for no one knows of its ever nesting otherwise. It is even said that the martin was provided with gourd houses before the discovery of America in 1492, and that the natives afforded protection to this favored bird. It now accepts the boxes erected for it, or nests in the cornices of buildings in our cities and towns. The chimney-swift is the best example of a species changing from a life in the solitudes to the busy scenes of village and city. Once the swift must have nested in the cavities of trees, and I have heard of nests being found in huge, hollow sycamores, but at present the birds almost confine their nesting haunts to unused chimneys.

The third cause of change, viz., drainage of land and water, does not produce the great influence that the removal of forests does. Nevertheless, it exerts more of a change than one would

credit. Many places where rails once nested in abundance, and ducks annually stopped on their migrations, are now comparatively dry fields and yield good crops. However, these drainings are almost compensated for by the overflow occasioned by the damming-up of streams and the outlets of lakes, as a head for mills, and, further, where lakes have been lowered by various means, it has not infrequently happened that the uncovered shoreline, so increased, has offered attractions to certain littoral species which were formerly rare, but which are now taken seasonally during migrations.

Enough could be written on this subject to fill a book, but space forbids further comment. It has been plainly shown that peopling a locality, with not too heavy a sprinkling over the agricultural portion, and not too heavy a removal of the trees, actually increases the number of the species of birds, and, with a few exceptions, principally the ducks, increases the number of birds. Though our little corporation does not contain as many birds as formerly, as they are crowded out, I am satisfied that there are in our county each year at least fifty species of birds unknown to the locality fifty years ago.

Kalamazoo, Michigan.

THE DUCK ISLANDS.1

BY LEVI W. MENGEL, ENTOMOLOGIST TO WEST GREENLAND EXPEDITION, 1891.

66

WE left Upernavick toward noon of July 1, with the "Kite's" head to the north-west. On the following morning we were awakened by the cry of Land, Ho," and upon reaching the deck saw in the distance several small specks, which we were told were the famous Duck Islands, so-called because almost their only inhabitants are the American Eider Ducks which congregate there in the summer to breed.

The party immediately began to prepare for the day's work, and at four o'clock we brought up under the lee of the largest of the islands. The Duck Islands are situated about 73° north and 58° west, and are three in number. They are all small, the largest

AN EIDER DUCK NEST.

not being more than a mile and a half in diameter; all near together, and composed of the same kind of rock, which appeared to be granitic or at least of some igneous origin.

Our party were soon ready to go on shore. A gun was fired from the ship, and a black cloud of birds arose from the islands. They flew a short distance and then alighted, most on land, yet some in the water. We were soon on shore, and then began a day of sport and slaughter. A portion of the party was detailed to gather eggs and down for the use of Lieutenant Peary in the far north. The remainder of the party were to gun for as many birds as they could get; and we got them. Seldom did a shot fail to bring down a bird, and from every portion of the islands came rapid reports which told of slaughter and death. One could not walk even a short distance before coming to a nest, and not unfrequently did the female wait until almost trodden upon before flying. The male birds betook themselves away upon the first scent of danger, and upon the water nearby, just provokingly beyond gunshot, could be seen numbers of them, many wounded but sufficiently active to keep away. Of the birds shot the females largely predominated, probably ten to one.

The nests of these birds were all built on the ground (see illustration), some on the open, and some few under the shelter of

1 The plates have been kindly loaned for this article by Dr. R. N. Keely, Jr., of Philadelphia, and are from his excellent narrative “In Arctic Seas."

huge rocks and boulders. They varied somewhat in size, though averaging about a foot in diameter, outside measure. They were uniform in color, made of fine feathers and down plucked from the breast, the whole effect being dull gray. The eggs were from three to six in number, of a dull grayish-green or drab color, which varied slightly in the different nests. The average of fifty-one eggs from thirteen nests is 3.05 X 2.00. The female,

if startled, deposits excrement, and partially covers the nest with down by a quick back motion of her feet. In many nests examined this was not the case, and in all probability the female was away feeding at the time of our arrival. Nearly all of our party reported the same in the nests of startled birds. Whether done to conceal the eggs or whether done through fright is entirely a matter of conjecture.

At the time of our visit to Duck Islands, incubation was begun in nearly all cases; in many far advanced; and though several barrels of eggs were collected, there were but very few which would be of any use to Peary. The birds, though to us they seemed very abundant, were thought by Captain Pike to be rather scanty in number. Probably some Arctic whaler had been there before us. This supposition may have been correct, as the sets

relatively much greater than in the larger cities, partly because these schools receive considerable accessions from the surrounding country, and partly because the smaller towns are not well supplied with private and technical schools to divide the attendance. So it comes about that a large part of the membership of the public secondary schools of our land is found in the villages and minor cities. In many of these towns education is a leading interest, the teachers are a favored and highly respected class, and the schools are managed with vigor and intelligence.

Now it is in the schools of these smaller cities and villages that the graduates of the numerous normal schools of our land find employment, either as superintendents, principals, or instructors. The district or rural schools rarely feel that they can retain the services of a trained teacher, so that the constant effort of normal faculties to induce their graduates to "go into the country and build up the rural schools" are only moderately successful. In the large cities the corps of teachers is usually recruited from the local high school or training school with little aid from without, and thus it becomes the distinctive work of the normal schools to give tone to education in communities too small to support a training school.

of eggs we collected contained but from three to six, while most authorities give from six to ten as the normal number. Besides the eider ducks, there was but little else of interest on the islands. Two or three snowflakes, Plectophanes nivalis (Linn) Mayer, a northern phalecope, Lobipes hyperboreas (Linn), Cuv., and a single king-eider, Somateria spectabilis (Linn) Boie, made the entire list of birds. Several spiders and an ant, which was not caught, made up the rest of animal life observed; although there were several pools which looked as if they might be worthy of investigation.

The Kite" had been steaming constantly from place to place, to avoid the bergs floating in the vicinity; and at 12 M., much against our wishes, we were recalled to pursue our journey northward. Reading, Pa., Sept. 19.

PREPARATION OF TEACHERS OF SCIENCE AS CARRIED FORWARD IN THE MICHIGAN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

BY E. A. STRONG.

THE list of towns and villages in our country having a population below 20,000, or even below 10,000, is a large one. In these towns the number of pupils who attend a public high school is

This is a great work, and it need hardly be said that it yet wants much of even reasonably complete accomplishment. Still, during the past few years there has been great improvement in the training of teachers, and the normal schools of the land are coming to deserve more and more the interest and sympathy of the friends of sound learning. A concrete example may best exhibit what the normal schools are doing or attempting, and the department of the physical sciences in the Michigan State Normal School will be used for this purpose.

Of the thousand students in this school rather more than onehalf take the full or four-years' courses, and about one-third of this number specialize their work in the direction either of the biological or the physical sciences. Of those who elect the physical sciences about 63 per cent have during the past five years come to the school certificated as graduates of "approved high schools," 19 out of a class of 21 being the largest ratio and 18 out of 63 the smallest. Of those who went out from the school between the years 1885 and 1890, 86 are teaching or have taught physics in some high school, and fifty-four are teaching or have taught chemistry. These numbers seem small; but it must not be forgotten that many of these people take up teaching as a lifework, and that the number of normal schools with a presumably similar or better record is very considerable.

The teaching force in this department is supplied by three instructors, with some regular and efficient assistance from advanced pupils, many of whom are teachers of experience. The department occupies three floors in the south-east angle of the building. Upon the lower floor is a shop, 33 feet by 28 feet, with a modest equipment of lathes, benches, and tools; a physical laboratory, 34 feet by 54 feet, supplied with water, gas, stone and oak tables and benches, a water-motor, a small dynamo and accessories, and a considerable collection of American, English, and German apparatus for measurement; a store-room, twelve feet square, containing cases for apparatus, one side of the room being used as a balance-room; two dark rooms, each 6 feet by 15 feet, with optical benches and the usual equipment for photometry and lens work, one side of one of the rooms being fitted up for primary batteries. Upon the middle floor is a recitation-room and laboratory for elementary physics, 34 feet square, furnished with recitation seats and tables for students' work, cases for students' apparatus and demonstration tables; an apparatus-room, 12 feet by 30 feet, with cases for demonstration, apparatus and tables for teachers' use; and a recitation-room and laboratory for higher physics, 20 feet by 24 feet, with the necessary furnishings and equipment. The third floor is devoted to chemistry, and contains a lecture-room, 20 feet by 24 feet, a laboratory 34 feet square, with tables for 40 students, and a work and store-room 12 feet by 30 feet, all with the usual fittings, apparatus, and appliances.

The course of study of this department contains the following titles: 1, Physics I.; 2, Physics II.; 3, Physical Laboratory Practice; 4, Training in the Physical Sciences; 5, General Chemistry; 6, Advanced Chemistry; 7, Physical Technics, including Advanced Laboratory Practice; 8, General Astronomy; 9, Advanced Physics; 10, Instrumental Astronomy; 11, Sanitary Science; 12, Meteorology.

The first five subjects in this list are taken by nearly all intending teachers who graduate upon the four-years' courses, and are designed to give some knowledge of the content and the methods of the physical sciences and such skill in manipulation as are needed in general teaching. The three numbers following also form a natural group designed to meet the wants of special teachers of the physical sciences. The last three are post-graduate subjects. Physics I. is a course, complete in itself, consisting of a daily lesson for twenty weeks, with additional laboratory work, upon molecular and mass mechanics. Special prominence is given to the states and properties of matter and the transference of energy. Physics II., a course of the same extent upon sound, electricity, and light, is also made complete within itself as far as possible to meet the wants of those students who have had a brief course in physics elsewhere, but who wish to extend their knowledge of these subjects. For most pupils the two form a continuous course of one year, with supplementary practical work.

The only condition for entering upon this subject is the completion of algebra and plane geometry; but the high average age of the members of the class, between nineteen and twenty,coupled with the fact that a large number of those who enter upon this subject have already completed elementary physics in one of our excellent high schools and desire to review and extend their studies in this direction with reference to teaching, permits and invites a strong and extended course.

The experimental work is of two sorts, teacher's class experiments or demonstrations and students' individual work carried forward at their tables. Our experience would indicate that the former cannot be entirely omitted without loss. A piece of apparatus does not teach its own best use. The student who knows how to investigate thoroughly and to question himself wisely has already passed the elementary stage of scientific work. As to the character of this demonstration apparatus, a portion consists of the ordinary apparatus sold by dealers, but a still larger portion is derived from the home, the farm, and the workshop-commercial, working pieces. Important demonstrations are repeated by pupils before the class, so that they may get a feeling for artistic demonstration and neat manipulation before a class. This is regarded as very important, though it is far easier to gain this ability than the power to question wisely. The catechism is the infinite matter.

In addition to these daily class demonstrations, our course contemplates students' individual work, mainly in measurement, two afternoons a week after the "collective" system. That is, each member of the class has a piece of apparatus exactly like that of the others, and does the same work in the same time. So each student is supplied with a balance in case, turning easily with one milligram, with fine weights; a set of burettes and measuring glasses, English and metric units divided with accuracy, and, in general, examples of the simpler apparatus in dynamics, heat, electricity, and optics.

As to method, a very important part of the work is presented inductively. That is, physical changes are observed and described by members of the class; the conditions upon which these changes depend are then varied in many cases and in many ways, and in each case the pupils are asked to observe and describe. Wise questioning leads the class to distinguish that which is constant from that which is variable in these changes until the law which governs them comes spontaneously into view and is fully apprehended and formulated. With somewhat similar material and under somewhat similar circumstances the pupil repeats the work at his own table. Further illustrations, exercises, and problems follow. If a book is used — as is the case in a portion of the work- the subject is assigned as a lesson to be recited in good form the least valuable part of the work, but still not without value. So, by the exhibition of material and wise questioning, the pupil passes from the observation and statement of fact to the apprehension and statement of law. It hardly needs to be added that this so-called inductive method is not identical with the method of discovery, since the student would not of his own instance know what experiments to try or what questions to ask; but from his point of view he is a real discoverer of fact and law, and the process has to him the interest and especially the suggestiveness of discovery.

The method of verification and illustration is also freely used, by which that which is dubiously or imperfectly known is brought into fuller knowledge. This method blends easily with the preceding. Resort is had to the method of authority for those numerous cases in which experiment and verification are impossible under the circumstances. This is especially necessary in the case of a teacher, who needs to have a complete view of his subject, and who must appeal to book or lecture for the ground of much of his knowledge. This knowledge of what other people have found to be true is so vivified by the more vital knowledge that the student has gained for himself by similar methods, that it is neither unreal nor unfruitful. Much attention is given here and elsewhere to the selection, care, and use of apparatus, to the graphical method of recording facts, and to the bibliography of physical science.

3. Laboratory Practice. This consists of "separate,” or individual, work for ten weeks in physical measurements, following and completing the preceding courses. As the members of the classes in laboratory practice have passed over the whole of elementary physics, they are prepared to take any experiment within the range of this subject. Each student works with a different piece of apparatus and continues its use until he has mastered it and secured the highest attainable results. Thus it is not necessary to duplicate pieces, and this saving in the cost of extensive duplication is applied to the purchase of apparatus of a higher grade and of greater variety than would otherwise be possible; and thus the course is made more extended and exacting than it could be under the "collective" system. Moreover, many pieces of apparatus in mechanics and heat have optical or electrical accessories which can be understood and put into action only by students who have completed a course in physics. But the real reason for preferring the “separate" system in any serious work in laboratory practice is the facility which it affords for individual and independent work according to observed capacity and advancement. No text-book is used, but exercises are set from a printed list containing references to Pickering, Stewart and Gee, Glazebrook and Shaw, Worthington, Whiting, and other authors, with whose works the laboratory is supplied.

4. Training in the Physical Sciences. This is a course in methods, and consists of two parts-theory, presented by quizzes, lec