THE ALLIES OF THE PIGEON: AVES 395 



flycatchers, swallows, and warblers, prey to some extent upon 

 useful parasitic insects ; but on the whole the habits of these 

 insectivorous birds are productive of considerable good to 

 man. Together with the vireos, cuckoos, and woodpeckers 

 (exclusive of the sapsuckers), they are the most valuable con- 

 servators of foliage on the farms. The quail, meadow-lark, 

 orchard-oriole, mocking-bird, house-wren, grasshopper-sparrow, 

 and chipping sparrow feed on insects of the cultivated fields, 

 particularly during the breeding-season, when the nestlings 

 of practically all species eat enormous numbers of caterpillars 

 and grasshoppers." 



Bird-Protection. The first steps toward bird-protection 

 were taken at the instance of the sportsmen, in whose inter- 

 est laws were passed prohibiting the destruction of game- 

 birds except at stated seasons of the year. These laws were 

 in the interest, too, of the hunter who shot for the market, 

 since they secured for the birds freedom from the molesta- 

 tion of man during the period of bringing up their young, 

 without which protection their extinction would, in many 

 cases, have been only a matter of time. Of late years great 

 interest has been aroused in ornithology, and the value of 

 birds to agriculture or as scavengers has been more generally 

 recognized. People generally have begun to take pleasure 

 in having birds about, for their beauty of form, or color, or 

 movement, and for their song, so that an aesthetic argument 

 has been added to the others. The separate states have 

 shown the effect of this general awakening by the improve- 

 ment of old laws or the passage of new ones for the protec- 

 tion of the insectivorous song-birds and other birds which 

 have not been proven to be directly injurious. The Audubon 

 societies of the country and the Committee on Bird Pro- 

 tection of the American Ornithologists Union were helpful 

 in arousing a public sentiment which made possible in May, 

 1900, the passage by the federal government of an act "to 



