V °'s99 VI ] Report of Committee on Bird Protection. ^9 



That the widespread agitation for bird protection in the North 

 has caused a much stricter regard for the laws is also shown by 

 the decrease in the number of small birds brought to taxidermists' 

 shops to be mounted. A bird stuffer in one of our large cities, in 

 reply to an inquiry as to his business, said: " It is simply dead. 

 If it warn't for rugs and deer heads we could n't live. Those — , 

 — , — Audubon Societies and bird books and newfangled laws are 

 just crowding us out. I have n't sold a bird in three years. The 

 men are afraid to shoot them or handle them in any shape. 

 What's the birds for if they ain't to be used ?" 



This is very gratifying, but it seems much more difficult to 

 obtain like results in the South, owing to the fact that small birds 

 have there been regarded as legitimate game for generations, and 

 it will only be by educating the rising generation that satisfactory 

 results will be obtained. 



As bearing directly upon this point a quotation from Miss 

 Merriam's report is of interest : " Some valuable hints were given 

 me last winter by the bad boys of a Summerville, S. C, school. 

 It was reported that they robbed every nest in the neighborhood 

 and used sling shots right and left, and 1 was asked to labor with 

 them. Believing that the only way to prevent killing is to create 

 an interest in the live bird, I preached merely by telling tales of 

 my bird friends, drawing out the boys to tell in turn what thev 

 knew. I soon felt that I had fallen not among robbers and sling 

 shooters but among ornithologists. Nevertheless there was work 

 to be done among them ; their knowledge was mainly of nests and 

 eggs; they knew little of the general habits of the birds. The 

 sportsman's instinct was strong within them. One lad confessed 

 quite frankly that he had killed a Great Blue Heron 'just to pass 

 the time,' and two boys whom I was cherishing as future Audu- 

 bons one day announced with cheerful pride that they had just 

 shot 13 Robins. This sporting instinct was, however, offset by a 

 strong love for natural history, and it was easy to stimulate their 

 interest in the habits of the birds by picturing the delights of 

 observing. This plan quickly bore fruit. A Chickadee was 

 building near the house of one of the boys and one day the child 

 came to me full of enthusiasm — he had spent half a day watch- 

 ing it. Graphically he explained the way it had worked and with 



