CHAPTER II 



THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF OUR BIRDS 



After twenty years of more or less constant edu- 

 cational work and legislative warfare, some of the 

 birds of our country, that make war on the insect 

 world, and protect our crops and forests, have at 

 last come to their own. The passage of the 

 McLean- Weeks federal migratory bird bill, in 

 May, 1913, into the federal migratory bird law, was 

 the crowning effort of a long and arduous series of 

 campaigns! The bill was driven through both 

 houses of Congress by a tornado of popular de- 

 mand. For five years or longer, the Shiras bill for 

 the federal protection of migratory game-biTds had 

 slumbered in the pigeon-holes of the committees to 

 which it had been referred, for the simple reason 

 that the public at large was not deeply interested in 

 the federal protection of birds that were destined 

 only to be slaughtered by all kinds of gunners, and 

 especially market-gunners. 



The amending of the McLean bill, by a provision 

 for the protection of the insectivorous birds gen- 

 erally, had the immediate effect of galvanizing the 

 whole measure into life. The press of the country, 

 the granges, the Audubonists, the sportsmen and 



