218 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



PART VIL-Miscellaneous Topics 



CHAPTER XLL— Birds 



210. Destruction of Birds. — In this age of ours a 

 money value is the standard by which most things are 

 judged. The first question is usually, " What is it 

 worth ? " Now, what are birds worth ? They are pretty : 

 many of them sing, and most kindly disposed persons 

 enjoy seeing them about, but have they an actual 

 money value? This question has been answered time 

 and again, and the answer is always the same. Birds 

 are of value, and they are of value to every living 

 creature on this earth. It is not simply the birds that 

 supply food for man and beast that are of value, but 

 those pretty, bright little things that come each spring 

 to enliven our country — robins, blackbirds, redbirds, 

 orioles, swallows, and a host of others. Every year they 

 come with the spring, and many of them spend their 

 summer with "us, but not as welcome guests. They are 

 greeted with guns, sling-shots, traps, stones, hunted by 

 cats and dogs, robbed of their nests and eggs, perse- 

 cuted by man and beast. Those unfortunates with 

 bright, pretty feathers are killed that they may serve, to 

 ornament women's heads. We laugh at the poor Indian 

 who decks himself with paint and feathers for some 

 festive occasion; but each year thousands upon thou- 

 sands of beautiful and useful birds are killed in order 

 that women may adorn their heads, not with feathers 



