to the Antarctic lands, where he can see the sun night and day during our 

 winter months. The migrating bird knows no national boundaries, still less, 

 does he recognize state boundaries. 



This was a matter of little public concern, until the value of birds to 

 mankind was realized. It has been said that the true lords of the universe are 

 the insects. So prolific are they, that, despite a constant struggle against myriads 

 of enemies, they continue to thrive and devastate our crops. How powerless 

 we are to check their ravages is only realized when their natural enemy, the 

 bird, is destroyed. It is stated, that if unchecked, the gypsy moth would destroy 

 all the foliage of this country within eight years. Only the voracious appetites 

 of the birds keeps them from overrunning the land. A single bird has been seen 

 to eat thirty-five gypsy moths per minute for eighteen minutes at a time. Six 

 years ago sections of New York and New England were ravaged by the tent 

 caterpillar. The birds came to the rescue and devoured them so rapidly, that, 

 within two years' time, there was not a trace of the devastation to be seen. 

 It was Franklin's gull that saved the early settlers in Utah from starvation 

 by devouring the crickets that were consuming their crops. Birds are worth 

 millions of dollars to a state, not only in the destruction of insects, but also, 

 in the destruction of vermin and noxious weed seeds. They provide the only 

 adequate means of combating the boll weevil, the gypsy and the brown tailed 

 moth, and similar pests. 



Realizing their value, many states have passed laws prohibiting the hunting 

 of birds, except during restricted periods, but these provisions are inadequate 

 in the case of the migratory species which pass over states that furnish the 

 birds no protection, or, where at best, the game laws are very lax. It was for 

 this reason — because certain states appreciated the value of the services rendered 

 by birds — that efiforts were made to protect them even outside of their state 

 limits. 



By a recent act of Congress migratory birds were placed under federal 

 control. The law which prohibits the shooting of birds in the spring time, went 

 into force on October 1, 1913. Spring time is a very important period in the 

 life of the migrating bird, for the reason, that mating usually occurs in the south 

 before the journey to the north, and the killing of a single bird at this time 

 may mean the loss of an entire brood. Recently the constitutionality of the act 

 has been questioned. Hon. Jacob Trieber, United States District Judge of the 

 Eastern District of Kansas, has declared the law unconstitutional. An appeal 

 has been taken from this decision, and will now be argued before the Supreme 

 Court. It will be urged that the interests of the people of the United States 

 require such a law; that these birds are really the property of the nation and 

 not of any one state; and (quoting a previous decision regarding the ownership 

 of wild game) that "The genius and character of the whole Government seem 

 to be that its action is to be applied to all the external concerns of the nation, and 

 to those internal concerns which affect the state, generally." Surely the pro- 

 tection of migratory birds affects the states generally. 



355 



