22 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



natural exhibition of traits inherited from savage ancestors. The remedy here is to 

 be applied, not by the State's bird wardens or police, but by its teachers. A nor- 

 mal, healthy boy should want to hunt birds and their nests, but a very little of the 

 right kind of instruction at this stage of his life will often so broaden his interests 

 that he soon finds living birds more attractive than dead ones. 



As for the destruction of birds by cats, there can be no doubt that it would be 

 largely decreased by the passage of a law requiring the annual licensing of cats, and 

 authorizing the proper authorities to kill all non-licensed cats. Such a law should 

 be supported not only by the friends of birds, but by the friends of cats as well. 

 By the former because the restriction of the cat population to the well-fed tabby of 

 the fireside would not only greatly reduce the cat population, but would do away 

 with its worst element, the cats who hunt for a living. It should be supported by 

 the latter because its enforcement would put an end to the existence of the many 

 starving felines of our cities whose happiest fate is sudden death. 



If birds are of value, as we believe them to be, we should not only prevent their 

 decrease, but we should take such measures as seem calculated to assist their 

 increase. We have seen that in destroying our forests we deprive many insectivo- 

 rous birds of their homes, while in clearing hedge rows we often rob seed-eating 

 birds of the protection the undergrowth affords them. With comparatively little 

 trouble we can add greatly to the attractions of our farms and gardens from the 

 birds' point of view. Clumps of trees left in the fields and rows of trees along the 

 hedge rows will prove paying investments, and wherever it does not seriously inter- 

 fere with the tilling of the land the undergrowth should be spared. During the 

 winter food in small quantities may be used to attract birds, and in the summer 

 water for bathing or drinking is always welcomed by them. Wren and Bluebird and 

 Martin houses should be erected in suitable positions with the hope of securing bird 

 tenants, who will pay a most profitable rental. 



Tt>e Facts in tl>e Case. 



Thus far the results of the work of economic ornithologists have been alluded 

 to only in a general way. It is now proposed to take up systematically the 

 economically more important of our birds and present the known facts regarding 

 their food-habits. In the first place, however, due mention should be made of the 

 sources whence this information is derived and some description should be given of 

 the manner in which it is obtained. 



