256 ANNUAL KEPORT 



properly dressed in order to be palatable. Why is it then that 

 a bird filled with shot, mangled and unbled, is considered such a 

 dainty. Now I am not blaming anyone for this state of things, 

 the trouble is in the education and customs of the people. 



But the greatest cause of the loss of bird life is the senseless 

 fashion of wearing bird skins on hats and bonnets. In the 

 United States many millions of birds are slaughtered annually, 

 to supply the demand, and we are told that in Europe this 

 fashion is even more prevalent than with us. l^ow this enor- 

 mous slaughter of innocent and beneficial birds can not be long 

 continued without disastrous result. Something must be done, 

 and that quickly, or our fields, orchards and groves will soon be 

 destitute of birds and overrun with noxious insects and crops 

 will be a thing of the past. No doubt, if brought to the test the 

 ingenuity of man would devise some other way of keeping the 

 insects in check, but nothing better or cheaper than birds 

 could be thought of. But how to stop this great waste is a 

 difficult problem. No doubt the people can be taught to look 

 at the matter in its proper light and abolish this cruel fashion, 

 but teaching some people is a very slow process. Our present 

 game laws are very inefficient as they merely prevent the killing 

 of game birds during the breeding season and allow them to be 

 indiscriminately slaughtered, even to total annihilation, at other 

 seasons of the year, and our laws do not include many of our 

 most useful birds, being specially designed to protect certain 

 birds until a class of men erroneously termed sportsmen are 

 ready to destroy them. 



What we want is a law making the killing of any and all birds 

 at any time a criminal offense, punishable by heavy fines and 

 imprisonment. I will pile it on still thicker: a shotgun is a 

 useless and dangerous implement and no man should be allowed 

 to make, buy, sell or use one for any purpose whatever, except' 

 to ventilate dog skins. 



But some will say if none were killed birds would become so 

 plentiful that insect food would not hold out, and then our crops 

 would suffer. There is no danger of that whatever. They have 

 natural enemies enough to prevent any alarming increase; and 

 who would not rather have his crops destroyed by these beauti- 

 ful songsters than by repulsive vermin. But when they get so 

 plenty that we can't raise crops for a living, it won't be hard to 

 resurrect that monstrous fashion, and then we could all be bird- 

 skinners. 



