HOW THE BIRDS SECURED THEIR RIGHTS. 



Deuteronomy xxxii 6-7. — "If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way, in any tree, or on the ground, 

 young cues or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the 

 young. But thou shalt in anywise let the dam go, that it may be well with thee, and that thou may prolong thy 

 days." 



QJ. 



(TY'T is said that the following peti- 

 tion was instrumental in secur- 

 ing the adoption in Massachu- 

 setts of a law prohibiting the 

 wearing of song and insectivor- 

 ous birds on women's hats. It is 

 stated that the interesting document 

 was prepared by United States Senator 

 Hoar. The foregoing verse of Scrip- 

 ture might have been quoted by the 

 petitioning birds to strengthen their 

 position before the lawmakers: 



"To THE Great and General 

 Court of the Commonwealth of 

 Massachusetts : We, the song birds 

 of Massachusetts and their playfellows, 

 make this our humble petition. We 

 know more about you than you think 

 we do. We know how good you are. 

 We have hopped about the roofs and 

 looked in at the windows of the houses 

 you have built for poor and sick and 

 hungry people, and little lame and 

 deaf and blind children. We have 

 built our nests in the trees and sung 

 many a song as we flew about the 

 gardens and parks you have made so 

 beautiful for your children, especially 

 your poor children, to play in. Every 

 year we fly a great way over the 

 country, keeping all the time where 

 the sun is bright and warm. And we 

 know that whenever you do anything 

 the other people all over this great 

 land between the seas and the great 

 lakes find it out, and pretty soon will 

 try to do the same. We know. We 

 know. 



"We are Americans just the same as 

 you are. Some of us, like some of 

 you, came across the great sea. But 

 most of the birds like us have lived 

 here a long while; and the birds like 

 us welcomed your fathers when they 

 came here many, many years ago. Our 



fathers and mothers have always done 

 their best to please your fathers and 

 mothers. 



"Now we have a sad story to tell 

 you. Thoughtless or bad. people are 

 trying to destroy us. They kill us 

 because our feathers are beautiful. 

 Even pretty and sweet girls, who we 

 should think would be our best friends, 

 kill our brothers and children so that 

 they may wear our plumage on their 

 hats. Sometimes people kill us for 

 mere wantonness. Cruel boys destroy 

 our nests and steal our eggs and our 

 young ones. People with guns and 

 snares lie in wait to kill us; as if the 

 place for a bird were not in the sky, 

 alive, but in a shop window or in a 

 glass case. If this goes on much 

 longer all our song birds will be gone. 

 Already we are told in some other 

 countries that used to be full of birds 

 they are now almost gone. Even the 

 Nightingales are being killed in Italy. 



"Now we humbly pray that you 

 will stop all this and will save us from 

 this sad fate. You have already made 

 a law that no one shall kill a harm- 

 less song bird or destroy our nests or 

 our eggs. Will you please make an- 

 other one that no one shall wear our 

 feathers, so that no one shall kill us to 

 get them? We want them all our- 

 selves. Your pretty girls are pretty- 

 enough without them. We are told 

 that it is as easy for you to do it as for 

 a blackbird to whistle. 



"If you will, we know how to pay 

 you a hundred times over. We will 

 teach your children to keep them- 

 selves clean and neat. We will show 

 them how to live together in peace 

 and love and to agree as we do in our 

 nests. We will build pretty houses 

 which vou will like to see. We will 



"5 



