264 Wild Bird Guests 



farmer should be able to distinguish the two or 

 three destructive hawks from all other hawks, 

 and forbid the shooting of any but the destruc- 

 tive kinds. In their own interest they should 

 oppose all legislation providing for a bounty on 

 hawks and owls. In 1885 the Legislature of 

 Pennsylvania passed what was known as "The 

 Scalp Act/' which was supposed to be in the 

 interest of the farmers, and which provided for a 

 bounty of fifty cents on each hawk, owl, weasel, 

 and mink killed within the limits of the state. 

 Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam, then Ornithologist 

 and Mammalogist of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, in his report to the De- 

 partment, estimated that to save a loss of 

 possibly $1875 a year through the destruction 

 of poultry, the state of Pennsylvania had in a 

 year and a half paid $90,000. He further re- 

 ported that this money had been paid for the 

 destruction of 128,571 benefactors, worth at 

 least $3,857,130 to the agricultural interests 

 of the state. In other words that the state had 

 for a year and a half been throwing away $2105 

 for every dollar saved. 



The Small Boy 



Somehow I can never become very much 

 worried over the question of the small boy with 



