BIRDS 



11 



oned in dollars and cents the flesh on an 

 average bird's body would be worth, say 

 twenty-five cents at the price of good 

 beef. But let us say seventy-five cents to 

 do full justice to the greater excellence 

 of the bird's flesh as food. We must 

 consider, however, that the most of the 

 birds which are not good for food, civil- 

 ized food, are' among our largest birds. 

 The size of the average edible bird would 

 therefore be greatly reduced, so our esti- 

 mate is a very liberal one. But during 

 the average lifetime of the average bird 

 it would destroy many times its own 

 weight of injurious animals. Careful in- 

 vestigations have shown that these in- 

 jurious animals would do many times 

 more damage than the worth of the bird's 

 flesh. We have no need, then, to take 

 into account the real good we derive in 

 the pleasure which the beautiful plum- 

 age, the sweet voice and the graceful 

 form bring to us. That is an added 

 value which nothing can compensate for. 

 How does the value of the bird's skin 

 as an ornament of dress or of the dwell- 

 ing, or as a scientific specimen compare 

 with its value as a living creature? As 

 an ornament it may be a thing of beauty, 

 or a hideous caricature. Even as a thing 

 of beauty it could not be made more so 

 than the living bird. No one will be will- 

 ing to declare that the quill, or the wing, 

 or the skin is necessary to the bonnet. 

 Many of us honestly think that the bon- 

 net would look far better without either. 

 As a scientific specimen the skin will 

 serve some purposes, some legitimate 

 purposes, which the living bird will not. 

 The living bird cannot be fully under- 

 stood without a careful study of its struc- 

 ture any more than a living man can. 

 Unfortunately, birds which die a natural 

 death cannot be found while their bodies 

 are fit to study, if found at all. But hap- 

 pily, the number of dead birds necessary 

 ■ for study is limited. Even for scientific 

 purposes there is no possible excuse for 

 indiscriminate slaughter. Collecting 

 should be left to those and those only 

 who know what is needed and are con- 

 tent with enough. In these days of large 

 collections and advanced knowledge, it is 

 the rare exception when the dead bird 

 will be more useful than the living one. 

 These exceptions do not afifect the right 

 of the bird to live. Boys who begin to 



study birds have a passion for making a 

 collection of the eggs. Eggs are beauti- 

 ful things, and they look well in a cabi- 

 net properly arranged. But all of the 

 eggs which most boys would be likely to 

 find are already well known, so that a 

 study of the eggs in the nest and of the 

 young birds will teach him far more that 

 we really need to know about the birds. 

 The greater good is not to make a collec- 

 tion of birds' eggs. 



What shall we say about the bird's 

 right to liberty? Clearly the bird at lib- 

 erty to perform the part which Nature 

 intended for him can fully accomplish that 

 part only when at liberty to go his own 

 way. But it would be idle to declare that 

 the caged bird is in nowise useful to the 

 world. There are some things which 

 can be learned about birds only from 

 caged ones. If a bird be caged for the 

 purpose of learning these things the very 

 few that will be needed for this purpose 

 will be fulfilling a high good, and if given 

 their freedom again when the lessons 

 have been learned the harm, if there be 

 any, will be fully repaid. But here, 

 again, the caged bird will be the rare ex- 

 ception and so does not afifect the right 

 of the average bird to liberty. 



We then have only to inquire whether 

 the bird has a right to the pursuit of hap- 

 piness. No one who has studied the liv- 

 ing bird with anything like an appreci- 

 ation of it will think of denying that birds 

 are creatures of intense life, capable of 

 strong feeling and keen enjoyment. They 

 speak out their feelings in song and ac- 

 tion. It is really their human attributes 

 which makes them appeal so strongly to 

 us. We know that they are capable of 

 love and hate, of joy and sorrow, of 

 pleasure and pain. In them we recog- 

 nize the heroic attribute of martyrdom. 

 In order, therefore, to determine what the 

 attitude of the bird would likely be were 

 his right to the pursuit of happiness de- 

 nied, we have only to ask what our own 

 attitude would be under the same circum- 

 stances. If our happiness should be 

 threatened in this place we would cer- 

 tainly go where it would not be. The 

 birds do the same. But we have already 

 seen that the birds have a right to life 

 and liberty on account of the services 

 they render to the world. If we deny 

 them the right of happiness they will not 



