CHAPTER VI 



AESTHETIC AND MORAL REASONS FOR PROTECT- 

 ING THE BIRDS 



We have seen how valuable the birds are to 

 us as guardians of our trees and crops, and we 

 realize that we should protect them for our own 

 interests, because they insure us heavier yields 

 and more money. To do this will show our 

 wisdom and far-sightedness; it will show our 

 interest in birds. But it will not necessarily 

 show our love for them, for "love does not 

 traffic in a market-place, nor use a huckster's 

 scales." Valuable as birds are as checks upon 

 our enemies the weeds, the insects, and the 

 rodents, there are higher reasons for protecting 

 them. Looking at the matter from an aesthetic 

 point of view, there are tens of thousands of 

 people, and I number the reader and myself 

 among them, who would find the world a much 

 harder place to live in if it were not for the birds. 

 Our happiness is made up largely of pleasant 

 sights and sounds and thoughts, and there would 



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