Mr. Chickadee in 



skin or stuffed specimen of a single native and 

 no one scoffed at his failure to do so ; but had he 

 been an Ornithologist studying birds, such actions 

 would have discredited his work for all time. 

 Now as a matter of fact we "Bird Lovers" care 

 mighty little about the inside of a bird, and what 

 we want to learn most of all is how to protect 

 them from their enemies and their so-called 

 friends, who simply regard them as being worth 

 skinning. 



Scorning to make the slightest concession to the 

 man "whose god is his belly," in passing, perhaps 

 it will be as well to make a little concession to 

 the man whose god is a little row of figures show- 

 ing the net earnings, for three hundred and sixty- 

 five days, of the farm in which every other inter- 

 est is merged, and assure him that his Chickadees 

 brought him in more than his chickens. I do not 

 care whether you believe it or not, but all growing 

 things are menaced by a mighty and ever-increas- 

 ing army of insectSj and this tiny Chickadee 

 is a dough-boy attacking the enemy in his trenches 

 and destroying as many as five or ten thousand on 

 a single drive. This country has National For- 

 ests and the Chickadee is our best National For- 

 ester. Nevertheless I am loath to discuss his 

 economic value, for to me it seems a bit like ask- 

 ing the economic value of the benediction that 

 follows after the prayer. We cannot put an esti- 



