Page 123 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

SLAUGHTER BY ITALIANS 101
On account of the now-accursed land-of-liberty idea, every foreigner who sails past the statue on Bcdloe's Island and lands on our liberty- ridden shore, is firmly convinced that now, at last, he can do as he pleases! And as one of his first ways in which to show his newly-acquired personal liberty and independence in the Land of Easy Marks, he buys a gun and goes out to shoot "free game!"
If we, as a people, are so indolent and so somnolent that Antonio gets away with all our wild birds, then do we deserve to be robbed.
Italians are pouring into America in a steady stream. They are strong,prolific,persistentandoftirelessenergy. NewYorkCitynow contains340,000ofthem. TheyworkwhilethenativeAmericanssleep. Wherever they settle, their tendency is to root out the native American andtakehisplaceandhisincome. TowardwildlifetheItalianlaborer isahumanmongoose. Givehimpowertoact,andhewillquicklyex- terminate every wild thing that wears feathers or hair. To our song- birds he is literally a "pestilence that walkcth at noonday".
As we have shown, the Italian is a born pot-hunter, and he has grown up in the fixed belief that killing song-birds for food is right ! To himallisgamethatgoesintothebag. Themomenthesetsfootinthe open, he provides himself with a shot-gun, and he looks about for things to kill. It is "a free country;" therefore, he may kill anything he can find, cook it and eat it. If anybody attempts to check him,—sapristi! bewarehisgun! Hecheerfullyinvadesyourfields,andevenyourlawn; and he shoots robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, grosbeaks, tanagers, orioles, woodpeckers, quail, snipe, ducks, crows, and herons.
Down in Virginia, near Charlottesville, an Italian who was working on a new railroad once killed a turkey buzzard; and he selfishly cooked it and ate it, all alone. A pot-hunting compatriot of his heard of it, andreproachedhimforhavingdinedongameincamera. Inthequarrel that ensued, one of the "sportsmen" stabbed the other to death.
When the New York Zoological Society began work on its Park in 1899, the northern half of the Borough of the Bronx was a regular daily hunting-ground for the slaughter of song-birds, and all other birds that couldbefound. EverySundayitwas"bangetty!""bang!"fromPel- ham Bay to Van Cortlandt. The police force paid not the slightest attention to these open, flagrant, shameless violations of the city or- dinancesandthestatebirdlaws. InthosedaysIneverbutonceheard of a policeman on his own initiative arresting a birdshooter, even on Sun- day; but whenever meddlesome special wardens from the Zoological Park have pointedly called upon the local police force for help, it has al- ways been given with cheerful alacrity. In the fall of 1912 an appeal to the Police Commissioner resulted in a general order to stop all hunting and shooting in the Borough of the Bronx, and a reform is now on.
The war on the bird-killers in New York City began in 1900. It seemed that if the Zoological Society did not take up the matter, the slaughter would continue indefinitely. The white inan's burden was taken up; and the story of the war is rather illuminating. Mr. G. O.