286 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



illegal business of killing breeding birds, of 

 leaving nestlings to starve wholesale, and of 

 general ruthless extermination, more and more 

 tends to attract men of the same moral cate- 

 gory as those who sell whiskey to Indians and 

 combine the running of "blind pigs" with high- 

 way robbery and murder for hire. 



In Florida one of the best game wardens of 

 the Audubon Society was killed by these sordid 

 bird-butchers. A fearless man and a good boat 

 are needed to keep such gentry in awe. Captain 

 Sprinkle meets the first requirement, the hull 

 of the Royal Tern the second. But the engines 

 of the Tern are worthless; she can catch no free- 

 booter; she is safe only in the mildest weather. 

 Is there not some bird-lover of means and imagi- 

 nation who will put a good engine in her.^ Such 

 a service would be very real. As for Captain 

 Sprinkle, his services are, of course, underpaid, 

 his salary bearing no relation to their value. 

 The Biological Survey does its best with its 

 limited means; the Audubon Society adds 

 something extra; but this very efficient and dis- 

 interested laborer is worth a good deal more 

 than the hire he receives. The government 

 pays many of its servants, usually those with 

 rather easy jobs, too much; but the best men, 

 who do the hardest work, the men in the lif e-sav- 



