54-2 



HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION 



but that is not the case. The strangest thing 

 is that it knows enough to feign death in order 

 to escajie injury. I know, because in my boy- 

 hood days an Opossum deceived me so com- 

 pletely and thoroughly that I have not yet 

 fully recovered from the shock. The animal 

 very nearlj- escaped through the trick that it so 

 skilfully played upon me; and since that day 

 I have wished a thousand times that I had given 

 that Opossum its freedom, as a reward of merit. 

 But I did not think of it in time. 



If our wild animals jiossessed as little reason 

 and foresight as some men, all of them would 

 have been killed or starved to death long ago. 



PRESENT STATUS OF BIRD STUDY. 



During the past ten years, the status of bird- 

 study in America has undergone an important 

 change. Yesterday was the day of the old- 

 fashioned ornithologist, — diligent in the killing 

 of birds in great numbers in order to study their 

 geograjjhic, seasonal, sexual and other varia- 

 tions, and also diligent in the differentiation of 

 new forms. At the same time, under the shel- 

 tering guise of "scientific purposes," hundreds 

 of thousands of the eggs of wild birds have been 

 collected by unscientific men and boys, and 

 stored away in dark cabinets, — to very small 

 purpose. 



The total number of birds and eggs collected 

 during the past fifty years in the sacred name of 

 science must be something enormous. Perhaps 

 two per cent, of the entire slaughter have served 

 genuine scientific purposes ; but we doubt it. 



To-day, it is no exaggeration to say that a 

 large number of the people who are keenly in- 

 terested in the birds of North America are 

 weary of the once-popular studies of minute 

 geographic variations, the making of new sub- 

 species, and the vexatious changing of scientific 

 names that, like the brook, seem destined to go 

 on forever. The English names of our birds 

 are in fact more stable and useful than those 

 bestowed by the scientists. 



To-day, the demand of the hour is for the 

 utilization, in practical ways, of the enormous 

 mass of American bird-lore that has been ac- 

 cumulated. The unscientific millions desire to 

 knotv about our birds the facts that are useful 

 to man, and helpful to the birds. Very unfor- 

 tunately, the schools and colleges in which the 

 foundations of natural-history teaching should 

 be "truly and firmly" laid, as befits every foun- 



dation stone, are sadly blundering in the busi- 

 ness of teaching teachers how to teach. As a 

 whole, the situation is in a most unsatisfactory 

 state. But the nature teachers are at least 

 aware that something is wrong; and that is the 

 first promise of better things. It is high time 

 for even the dullest person to see that long and 

 weary weeks spent on the anatomy of the grass- 

 hojjper. butterfly, beetle and amoeba are not in 

 line with the desires of bright boys and girls 

 who want to know which are the most inter- 

 esting, the most useful and the most injurious 

 birds, mammals and reptiles of our country. 



The study of natural history in public schools 

 and colleges could be made as musical as 

 Apollo's lute ; and let us hope that some day it 

 will be. jMeanwhile, there is one great lesson 

 that all may learn. It is this: 



It is not always necessary to destroy wild life 

 in order to study it. The study of birds can 

 better begin with a bird book and a pair of 

 sharp eyes than with a gun and a bushel of 

 cartridges. The study of birds' eggs is all 

 right, provided the birds of today do not have 

 to pay the whole cost of it in fresh eggs. In 

 the United States, the killing of birds for "sci- 

 entific purposes" is now very rarely necessary, 

 or justifiable. 



The most advanced ornithologists of the pres- 

 ent day are devoting their best attention to the 

 study of living birds, and their relations to man- 

 kind. Practical aviculture is teaching many 

 new and useful lessons which the study of dry 

 skins and skeletons never have revealed. Mr. 

 C. William Beebe, experimenting at the Park 

 with live birds kept in atmospheres of varying 

 degrees of humidity, has found that by means 

 of an unusual degree of humidity it is easy to 

 create new and startling "sub-species," literally 

 "wliile you wait." It is unnecessary to point 

 out the reasons why this discovery is of great 

 practical importance to ornithologists. 



Today, the highest duty of every lover of 

 birds is to help protect the birds that remain. 

 Nor is it necessary to have a speaking acquaint- 

 ance with a bird before taking an interest in pre- 

 serving it and its kind from annihilation. It is 

 impossible to afford birds too much protection, 

 too much immunity from the forces of destruc- 

 tion. Every child should be taught that without 

 tlie assistance of the birds that destroy annually 

 millions of noxious insects, rodents, and tons of 

 seeds of noxious weeds, our country soon would 

 become a barren waste. 



