130 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
by the hunting of song birds. But while we have game 
fish to angle, and mammals and real game birds to 
hunt, the shooting of song birds is looked upon as small 
and disgraceful, and popular opinion can easily be 
educated to stigmatize it as contemptible and criminal. 
Laws protecting song birds would be much more diffi- 
cult to enforce after our fish and game had become ex- 
tinct. In England, Germany, France, and Austria, 
laws for the protection of song birds, even if rigidly 
observed, are only partially effective, because in several 
South European countries these same protected birds 
are caught, netted, and killed by tens of thousands 
during the fall and spring migrations. ‘There is no 
game left in these countries, and it will take decades 
before the people there will appreciate the value and 
the ethics of bird protection. 
Everyone interested in game protection should join 
the League of American Sportsmen. Drop a post card 
for information to the L. A. $8. Warden in your state, 
or to the League of American Sportsmen, 19 West 24th 
Street, New York. 
This is a matter in which all grades and classes of 
schools should be interested, but I regret to say that 
not many teachers have even begun to do their duty 
towards the birds and our wild kindred. I hope that 
in the near future the League of American Sportsmen 
may devise a plan by which boys in high schools, 
normal schools, and academies, and young men in 
college may join the league for a nominal sum, — 
which should entitle them to membership until they 
