28                                  BIBDS OF BUCKS COUNTY.
 

BIRDS.
 

An enumeration of the birds found in Bucks county during the whole or part of

the year.
 

BY  JOSEPH  THOMAS,   M.  D.,   QUAKERTOWN,   PA.
 

Bucks county, in common with other districts of the state, and, in fact, the whole
country, has suffered a serious decimation of her feathered denizens by the hand of
man. This has been occasioned in various ways. The march of civilization, trans¬
forming the face of the country by cutting down and removing the timber growth, once
so abundant here, and subjecting the soil to tillage, has destroyed, or at least materi¬
ally circumscribed, the haunts of many of our native birds that once made the forest
vocal with their song. Like the American Indian, against whom civilization has
waged a constant and relentless warfare, even to extermination in many cases, so the
birds liaA'^e suffered indiscriminate destruction from the same ruthless foe : the sports¬
man for pleasure, the ignorant farmer from mistaken motives of protecting his crops,
and the thoughtless urchin from promptings of wantonness and mischief, as well
as others, actuated by a desire of gain, have contributed likewise in diminishing the
number of birds, formerly so numerous. Unmindful of the mischievous consequences
of destroying these ministers of beneficence to man, his hand has been staid only
when, comparatively recently, our legislature sounded a truce by enacting laws for-
Didding the destruction of insectiverous birds, and permitting certain game birds to be
shot at specified periods in the year. To repair in a measure the damage done in the
past, it was found expedient a few years ago to send abroad and import the English
sparrow to aid in extinguishing the insect pest that had become such a nuisance.
Fifty years or more ago, when Wilson, Audibon, and others, traversed our woods and
fields to study and describe our native fauna, many species of birds, now rare and only
occasionally seen within our border, were observed in great abundance.

In 1683 William Penn, Proprietary and governor of Pennsylvania, wrote to the
committee of the Free Society of Traders residing in London, in relation to some of
the resources of the province, as follows: " Of living creatures, fish, fowl, and the
beasts of the wood, there are divers sorts, some for food and profit, and some for profit
only. For food, as well as profit, the elk, as big as a small ox, deer bigger than ours,
beaver, raccoon, rabbits, squirrels; some eat young bear, and commend it. Of food of
the land there is the turkey, forty and fifty pounds weight, which is very great, pheas¬
ants, heath birds, pigeons and partridges in abundance. Of the water, the swan, goose,
white and grey, brant, ducks, teals; also the snipe and curloe, and that in great num¬
ber, but the duck and teal excel, nor so good have I ate in other countries."