316 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The killing of American birds for the protection of any crop grown 

 on Missouri soil, I am convinced is a mistake. I care not what the 

 bird may be, nor what the crop to be protected. I do not speak at 

 random, Missouri has a bird fauna of at least one hundred and eighty- 

 eight species, not one of which do I deem it wise husbandry to destroy 

 for the protection of any crop grown here, nor yet for the protection 

 of either bees or poultry. 



Feeling that it is entirely by your kindness that I come before you 

 to offer a plea for our birds, I must necessarily feel that my time is 

 limited. I will, therefore, begin by pleading for those upon which the 

 fiai of destruction has been passed by men for so long "that the mem- 

 ory of man runneth not to the contrary." Even our legislatures have 

 gone so far as to allow the killing of certain birds throughout all sea- 

 sons, and, in at least one case, offered a reward for the heads of 

 hawks. 



Now, let us discard, for a moment, the superstitions regarding 

 both hawks and owls, and see if these dignified bodies have not been 

 guilty of trying to perpetuate a superstition as wikl as the dreaiu of a 

 sap-sucker, and that, too, by "an act entitled an act, and rendered valid 

 by the signature of the Governor and the great seal of blank. A gen- 

 eral assembly of owls could draw a better bill, so far as ornithology is 

 concerned, and yet it is not because these men are not intelligent enough 

 to know, but because they had rather adopt and work on a popular 

 superstition than do the work necessary to learn the truth. 



I do not deny that hawks and owls catch chickens. In the twenty- 

 two years over which my memory reaches with a distinctness sufficient 

 to make it reliable, 1 have three times seen a hawk catch a chicken, 

 so I am positive the poultry industry has suffered from this cause a 

 dead loss of two chickens — the third chicken I rescued, so no loss 

 was sustained.- My hearer did you ever see a hawk or an owl catch a 

 chicken? How often have you seen it"? Have you seen it often 

 enough to keep, for six months, a single hawk as fat as a gray hound,, 

 or even a church mouse '? 



' I know you believe it, I know everybody believes it, and I know 

 nobody can give any better reason for the belief than you can ; and 

 you will acknowledge you have not evidence enough to convict a man 

 of treason if it were directed against a man instead of a bird, and given 

 in a court of justice instead of poured into the too eager ear. Ninety- 

 nine hundredths of your »s-idence is hearsay, and you could write all 

 you have heard on a postal card, and yet have room for the seal and 

 signature. 



