How to Attract the Birds 



living among us were absolutely the first to study the 

 food of any one species of bird through an entire 

 year and in various sections of the country, and to 

 pass scientific judgment upon it only after laboratory 

 tests of the contents of its stomach, that final court 

 of appeal. Through pressure brought to bear upon 

 Congress by the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 the Department of Agriculture was authorized in 

 1885 to spend a ridiculously small sum to learn the 

 positive economic value of birds to us, a branch of 

 scientific research now included under the Division 

 of Biological Survey. Until that year all the scien- 

 tific work that was done in this line could have 

 been recorded in a very small volume indeed. 



A GENERAL WHITEWASHING 



As might have been expected, when the white 

 search-light of science beats upon the birds, none, 

 not even the -crow, appears as black as he has been 

 painted. Only a few culprits among the hawks and 

 owls, and only one little sinner not a bird of prey, 

 stand convicted and condemned to die. When it 

 came to a verdict on the English sparrow, after the 

 most thorough and impartial trial any bird ever re- 

 ceived, every thumb, alas! was turned down. But 

 having proven itself fittest to survive in the struggle 

 for existence after ages of competition with the birds 

 of the Old World, being obedient to nature's great 

 law, it will defy man's legislation to exterminate it. 

 Toilers in our over -populated cities, children of the 

 slums, see at least one bird that is not afraid to live 

 among them the year around. 



170 



