82 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



they went clamoring to the legislature, this time for 

 the quick repeal of the law. With all possible haste 

 this was brought about; but it was estimated by 

 competent judges that in damages to their crops 

 "the fool hawk law" cost the farmers of the state of 

 Pennsylvania more than $2,000,000. 



The moral of this episode is that it is very danger- 

 ous to meddle with the balance of nature by a 

 wholesale destruction of hawks and owls. There 

 are a very few species that deserve to be destroyed, 

 but those are now so difficult to find and so diffi- 

 cult to identify at gunshot distance, that only an 

 intelligent hunter is competent to undertake their 

 destruction and guarantee no killings by mistake. 

 To-day the really destructive species are almost a 

 negligible factor in wild-life economy, and I encour- 

 age no one save a bird man to go hunting for the 

 objectionable hawks and owls. There is no longer 

 any real necessity to provide bounties for the 

 destruction of the few and now rare species of 

 hawks that do more harm than good and that 

 deserve destruction when they are numerous. 



In conclusion, the economic value of all the 

 insect-eating and most of the rodent-eating birds is 

 so great that every friend of our crops and forests 

 should insist, in season and out of season, boldly and 

 confidently, upon the absolute and inviolate protec- 

 tion of all species save the few admitted to be pests 

 deserving destruction. This proposition is not open 

 to argument. 



