46 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



than the bark-beetles, wood-borers and leaf- 

 destroyers that work so silently and yet so fatally. 

 The fire-watchers of the great forest regions of the 

 far West are ceaselessly diligent in watching for 

 smoke from peak summit and lofty tower, and tele- 

 phoning the news of every fire observed ; but no one 

 is able to exercise any such protective vigilance 

 against the ravages of insects. In the general 

 slaughter of wild life, the most valuable of tree- 

 protecting birds have been rapidly fading away. 

 We first note their disappearance by the fact that 

 they are much less numerous than formerly, and 

 finally are becoming rare; and we know that they 

 are shot and eaten by the northern Italian and the 

 southern negro. 



For many reasons, it seems both desirable and 

 necessary that every friend and protector of bird 

 life should be armed with precise information 

 regarding the economic value of our birds. In pro- 

 tective warfare, such facts are continually called 

 for, particularly by newspaper reporters and edi- 

 tors, magazine writers, members of law-making 

 bodies, and even judges on the bench who are 

 friendly and anxious to help. The amount of exact 

 information that must each year be furnished for 

 practical use regarding the value of our insectivor- 

 ous birds is enormous, and the demand for such 

 information is certain to be continuous. 



Let no friend of the birds be deceived into the 

 belief that because the federal migratory bird law is 



