130 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 



by the hunting of song birds. But while we have game 

 fish to angle, and mammals and real game birds to 

 hunt, the shooting of song birds is looked upon as small 

 and disgraceful, and popular opinion can easily be 

 educated to stigmatize it as contemptible and criminal. 

 Laws protecting song birds would be much more diffi- 

 cult to enforce after our fish and game had become ex- 

 tinct. In England, Germany, France, and Austria, 

 laws for the protection of song birds, even if rigidly 

 observed, are only partially effective, because in several 

 South European countries these same protected birds 

 are caught, netted, and killed by tens of thousands 

 during the fall and spring migrations. There is no 

 game left in these countries, and it will take decades 

 before the people there will appreciate the value and 

 the ethics of bird protection. 



Everyone interested in game protection should join 

 the League of American Sportsmen. Drop a post card 

 for information to the L. A. S. Warden in your state, 

 or to the League of American Sportsmen, 19 West 24th 

 Street, New York. 



This is a matter in which all grades and classes of 

 schools should be interested, but I regret to say that 

 not many teachers have even begun to do their duty 

 towards the birds and our wild kindred. I hope that 

 in the near future the League of American Sportsmen 

 may devise a plan by which boys in high schools, 

 normal schools, and academies, and young men in 

 college may join the league for a nominal sum, 

 which should entitle them to membership until they 



