BIRDS ON HATS, ETC. 85 



a certain preparation is recommended and a correspond- 

 ent writes that he has a class of seven boys learning the 

 art of stuffing birds, an art which the average boy should 

 not learn. 



Withdraw your support from all persons that work 

 for bird destruction. Let individuals and societies 

 notify the publishers of papers and magazines, when 

 such advertisements appear. The next step would be 

 to enact laws forbidding the trade in mounted song 

 birds and in bird eggs. The advertising of such ma- 

 terial would be or could be made prima facie evidence 

 of a violation of the law. 



I think it will also be found necessary to prohibit or 

 regulate by law the caging and keeping of native live 

 song birds. If a prohibition is not considered wise, 

 then a license should be imposed, but such a license 

 would be difficult to collect. In Europe a regular bird- 

 catching industry sprang up and had to be ostracized 

 by law. One can find now in almost any bird store 

 mocking birds and Kentucky cardinals. To what ex- 

 tent this trade has affected the number of these birds 

 in their native haunts farther south I do not know. I 

 surmise, however, that it must reduce them consider- 

 ably, because for every bird that is successfully raised 

 or tamed, two or three will perish. Let us go where 

 wild birds are not forced to sing behind iron bars. 



The actual song-bird hunters, those fellows that 

 shoot song birds in order to devour the tiny morsels, 

 deserve no mercy whatever. They are mostly people 

 who come from European countries where all mamma- 



