the Value of Birds to Man. 109 



—due entirely to tlie work of the Biological Survey in the 

 interests of agriculture — and to-day the farmer is only too 

 willing to admit that the bird is his best friend. 



This is magnificent, and bygones should be bygones ; but 

 that you may realise the value oF Hawks and Owls to man, I 

 am obliged to rake up an ugly past. 



In 1885 the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an Act, 

 known as the "Scalp Act,'' which provided a bounty of 50 

 cents each on Hawks and Owls killed within the State limits, 

 and a fee of 20 cents to the notary taking the affidavit. As 

 the result of this Act, 90,000 dollars was paid in bounties 

 during the year and a half subsequent to the passage of the 

 Act. But the vengeance of Nature's laws is speedy and 

 never fails. An irruption of small rodents followed, and did 

 damage to the agricultural interests of the State to the tune 

 of 3,850,000 dollars. And even these figures, enormous as 

 they are, do not represent the entire loss. Years must 

 elapse before the balance of Nature, which was destroyed, 

 can be restored. 



In Montana the destruction of Hawks and Owls was so 

 complete that rodents, freed from the pressure of their 

 natural check, became as one of the plagues of the Book of 

 Exodus. Then the Legislature passed a law offering 

 bounties for the destruction of these four-footed pests. 

 During six months of 1887 such large sums were paid out 

 in bounties for the destruction of small rodents — a work 

 that the Hawks and Owls had previously done free of charge — 

 that a special Session of the Legislnture was called to repeal 

 the Act, lest it should bankrupt the State. 



In 1907, Nevada went through a very trying experience 

 with mice, while Utah, Wyoming, (Jalifornia, and several 

 States further east have all had occasion to bitterly rue the 

 day that they shot their Hawks and Owls. 



But the destruction of small rodents is not the only 

 function of rapacious birds in the economy of Nature. 

 Several species are voracious insect feeders. Nor is this all. 

 It is well known that when small insectivorous birds increase 



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