The Bird and the Citizen 



By Frank M. Chapman 



While, indirectly, the citizen of course shares in the services rendered by birds 

 to our agricultural interests, birds have an additional claim upon his good will. 

 Birds destroy many undesirable insects, mosquitoes, for example, some species of 

 which have recently been found to be so inimical to the health of the human race. 

 Birds further increase the health fulness of the world by acting as scavengers. It 

 would be difficult to overestimate the value of the Buzzards, Vultures, and other 

 ofifal-eating birds to the countries in which they live. In most instances the eco- 

 nomic importance of these birds is too obvious to be overlooked, and they are, 

 therefore, protected by law, and, by what is far more powerful than law, public 

 sentiment. 



In our Southern States the Turkey Buzzard and Black Vulture, or "Carrion 

 Crow" have become so numerous and tame as a result of the protection there, given 

 them that they walk around the streets of the towns and cities in great numbers, 

 and with no more evidence of fear than is shown by poultry. Every one realizes 

 that a living Buzzard is of infinitely more value than a dead one, and in many 

 years' experience in the South I have never seen a Buzzard molested. 



In New York, it is true, we have no Buzzard, but on the waters of our sea- 

 coast, harbors, lakes and larger rivers, their place is taken by Gulls of several 

 species, which, in feeding on the forms of aquatic life which, in dying, come to 

 the surface, perform a sanitary service of the first importance. 



While a discussion of the economic relations of birds might be supposed to 

 confine us to a consideration of the material side of their lives he would indeed be 

 lacking in imaginative power, in ability to appreciate the usefulness or beauty, who 

 did not find in these pre-eminently graceful, musical, attractive creatures a source 

 of pleasure to mankind deserving our serious attention from the physiologic, and 

 hence, economic standpoint. 



The pursuit which takes us afield and gives us rest and exercise combined, and 

 increases our resources by broadening our interest in nature, is not merely a pas- 

 time, but a recreation benefiting both mind and body, and better preparing us for 

 our duties as citizens of the State. No one would think of asserting that the value 

 of New York's game animals was to be reckoned in the terms of the bill-of-fare. A 

 few thousand dollars would express their wealth to the butcher or restaurateur, 

 but to the true sportsman they are an exhaustless mine of wealth. A day with dog 

 and gun, rod or rifle may bring small returns from a pecuniary point of view, but 

 who can calculate the amount of physical good and pure enjoyment it has afforded ? 

 Game bag and creel may, indeed, be empty, while our mind is full of stimulating 

 experiences, all increasing our eagerness to take to the field again. 



So the hunter of birds with opera glass and camera finds an even deeper pleas- 

 ure in his excursions into their haunts and study of their ways ; a pleasure which 

 no accounting of the value of birds to the State can ignore. 



In view of the economic importance of birds to our agricultural interests it 



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