tectors of wild life informing me that the destruction of
ground-nesting birds, and especially of upland game birds, by roaming
dogs, has in some localities become a great curse to bird life.
Complaints of this kind have come from New York, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Usually the culprits are
_hunting dogs_--setters, pointers and hounds.

Now, surely it is not necessary to set forth here any argument on this
subject. It is not open to argument, or academic treatment of any kind.
The cold fact is:

In the breeding season of birds, and while the young birds are incapable
of quick and strong flight, all dogs, of every description, should be
restrained from free hunting; and all dogs found hunting in the woods
during the season referred to should be arrested, and their owners
should be fined twenty dollars for each offense. Incidentally, one-half
the fine should go to the citizen who arrests the dog. The method of
restraining hunting dogs should devolve upon dog owners; and the law
need only prohibit or punish the act.

Beyond a doubt, in states that still possess quail and ruffed grouse,
free hunting by hunting dogs leads to great destruction of nests and
broods during the breeding season.

TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WIRES.--Mr. Daniel C. Beard has strongly called
my attention to the slaughter of birds by telegraph wires that has come
under his personal observation. His country home, at Redding,
Connecticut, is near the main line of the New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railway, along which a line of very large poles carries a great
number of wires. The wires are so numerous that they form a barrier
through which it is difficult for any bird to fly and come out alive and
unhurt.

Mr. Beard says that among the birds killed or crippled by flying against
those wires near Redding he has seen the following species: olive-backed
thrush, white-throated sparrow and other sparrows, oriole, blue jay,
rail, ruffed grouse, and woodcock. It is a common practice for employees
of the railway, and others living along the line, to follow the line and
pick up on one excursion enough birds for a pot-pie.

Beyond question, the telegraph and telephone wires of the United States
annually exact a heavy toll in bird life, and claim countless thousands
of victims. They may well be set down as one of the unseen forces
destructive to birds.

Naturally, we ask, what can be done about it?

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