PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



BY JULIA FORCE 



BIRDS, as a portion of the realm of natural history, 

 have been so cruelly slaughtered and otherwise 

 persecuted, that they are much less numerous now 

 than a hundred years ago. Man, with little effort could 

 and should assume a definite work of protection to 

 lessen every form of destruction. 



When heavy snows cover the ground and the seed 

 supply for the time is unattainable, the birds should be 

 fed. Grain scattered about 

 farm buildings, crumb 

 baskets, corn ears and 

 bundles of grain hung in 

 trees, will tide the suffer- 

 ing birds over such periods 

 of strenuous weather. The 

 same can be done for fa- 

 tigued birds which meet 

 with heavy rains and 

 strong gales during migra- 

 tion. Upon reaching their 

 destination, migrating birds 

 are hungry, lean and ex- 

 hausted ; and without hu- 

 man assistance great num- 

 bers must die. This is 

 especially true in northern 

 latitudes if the birds meet 

 a backward spring which 

 retards insect growth. It 

 is then the birds are most 

 likely to come to the vicini- 

 ty of houses. There they 

 meet one of their worst 

 enemies, the cat; and if 

 they choose their nesting 

 places near they must live 

 in perpetual fear for their 

 lives and that of their nest- 

 lings when hatched. Much 

 destruction is worked by 

 both stray or homeless cats 

 and well-fed ones ; and be- 

 cause there is a supersti- 

 tious fear the killing of cats 

 brings bad luck, birds are 

 left to suffer from that 

 source almost without ex- 

 ception. Another source of 

 destruction has been the 

 small boy with the gun. Without discrimination, he has 

 gratified his hunting instinct and love of adventure. Nor 

 has he limited his depredations to bird-shooting alone. 

 Egg collecting and nest destroying attack him as a 

 fever with the recurrence of spring. His acts of cruelty 

 are most probably due to ignorance and thoughtlessness 



A ROBIN'S NEST ON THE GROUND 



unde 



smalt 



This robin chose to lay her eggs directly on the ground 

 syringa bush in the garden, without even a little straw under them. 

 Miss Alice Bingham, one of our members, sent in the picture because, 

 she says, *'I have never before seen a robin lay her eggs on the ground, 

 nor has anyone to whom I have described the occurrence. The mother 

 sat on the eggs devotedly but we saw no sign of the father, and at 

 the end of a week the mother, too, disappeared. I'm afraid the neigh- 

 bors cat, whom we had scared away several times, finally caught her. 

 I believe the picture is sufficiently unusual to be of interest to other 

 bird-lovers." And we agree with her. 



but they do not manifest more of it than does the woman 

 of fashion. One of the grossest forms of cruelty to 

 birds springs from the caprices of fashion. That ladies' 

 hats may be adorned with feathers, thousands of old 

 birds are slaughtered during the breeding season, which 

 means death by starvation to the helpless young. It is 

 claimed that the majority of feathers used for millinery 

 purposes are taken from birds in the tropical forests, but 



it is a well-known fact that 

 the feathers of our plainest 

 songsters assume the bril- 

 liant colors of tropical 

 plumage when passed 

 through the dyeing pot. 

 Water birds, especially 

 along the shores of our 

 country, are victims of 

 greed. Egg hunters gather 

 and place on the market 

 for food, thousands of 

 their eggs. That naturally 

 diminishes the annual num- 

 ber of young hatched. We 

 could soon end the prac- 

 tices of commercializing 

 birds and their products as 

 well as the small boys' 

 hunting; and with slight 

 individual effort preserve 

 thousands of birds each 

 year. 



Ignoring their biological 

 classification, birds are con- 

 veniently divided into two 

 classes, beneficial and 

 harmful. While no birds 

 are wholly beneficial, nei- 

 ther are there any totally 

 harmful. They are all, 

 therefore, worthy of man's 

 protection to the extent 

 that no kind becomes ex- 

 tinct nor accumulates to 

 the degree that they be- 

 come pests. Good ex- 

 amples of the useful sort 

 are quail, robins, orioles, 

 woodpeckers and most 

 sparrows because they help 

 keep insect life within supportable limits. Less bene- 

 ficial birds are crows, blackbirds and English sparrows ; 

 so regarded because of their depredations upon grain 

 wherever they find it. Hawks and owls are usually 

 classed among harmful birds, because of their tendency 

 to destroy poultry ; but a study of their habits has proved 



