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 



>eel. But let us say seventy-five cents to 



? A J us j, lce tV he ^ eater excellence 



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. 



he size of the average edible bird would 



sfore be greatly reduced, so our esti- 



mate is a very liberal one. But during 



the average lifetime of the average bird 



into account the real good we derive in 

 the p easure which the beautiful plum- 

 age, the sweet voice and the graceful 

 form bring to us. That is an added 



^ETtt'SStS^SW skTn 

 es the van the bir 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 affect 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 ' ab h w d> 

 ri ht to Hbert ? Qe rl ** 



d Qnes If bird be d h 



* f } . these ^ h 



^/^ wi ,, be n f eded f ^ ? 



Wil1 be Mm Z a hi ^ h S od > and if glen 

 thdr freedom in when th lessons 



have been learne the h - f there be 



any> will be full id But here> 



again> the caged bird will be the rare ex _ 



cep tion and so does not affect the right 

 o f 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 



