690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



may effectively protect our birds in general, so as to preserve 

 them as far as is possible under present conditions. 



Against the most important cause of the disappearance of 

 birds, modern agriculture and the removal of the forests, special 

 measures have been adopted with effect in some places, and more 

 are needed. Among these are the plantation of sheltering woods, 

 particularly in or near cities, in public parks, and on all estates, 

 and of thickets in the open fields. These should contain abundant 

 berry-bearing plants and thorny bushes, and might be thickly 

 furnished with nest-boxes, such as are made at several German 

 factories, after patterns indicated by Gloger, in six different num- 

 bers. An essential condition to the success of such bird-protect- 

 ories is the suppression of all enemies of birds and of all disturb- 

 ers of their nests, egg-collectors large and small. The weakest 

 efforts in behalf of the birds have been those to protect them 

 against unfavorable conditions of weather. Happily, excessive 

 severities of weather, like hard hailstones and terrible thunder- 

 storms, in which birds are numerously sacrificed, are compar- 

 atively rare. Lesser weather changes, while they are often not 

 less dangerous to birds, we can more easily contend against. Cer- 

 tainly, any sincere lover of birds, even though he have only a 

 garden or a small yard, or a balcony or a window, can set out 

 food for the support of feathered guests in times of snow or hard 

 frost. But perhaps only a few friends of birds think of the times 

 when the weather conditions are really most unfavorable, and the 

 care of them is most needed. In the late snows and sharp frosts 

 of approaching spring, many of our feathered summer friends are 

 exposed to great hardships, in which they need all the attention 

 that their friends can give them. 



The taste for having singing-birds in the house is so wide- 

 spread and so deeply rooted in popular life that it would be hard 

 to extirpate it. No intelligent man would underestimate its influ- 

 ence on the temper, or its educational, moral, and economical im- 

 portance, and no well-wisher could desire its complete suppression. 

 And it is demonstrable that bird-catching for the sake of this fancy 

 hardly contributes materially to the diminution in the number of 

 birds. It affects chiefly the males, which among native birds 

 greatly outnumber the females ; and when a hunter catches a 

 male of almost any species, another will appear in a short time to 

 fill its place. Egg-collectors, on the other hand, may inflict great 

 damage ; and the collector of the present time is not satisfied with 

 one specimen, as formerly, but usually takes the whole laying. 



The form of destruction most grievous to thoughtful and 

 sensitive men is that which is pursued for the sake of woman's 

 adornment. It seems hardly possible, at the first look, that an 

 honorable woman, possessed of a delicate, moral, pure, and true 



