37 



general understaiidiug of the ecouoiuic relations of 

 birds, mammals and insects, and tlie important bearing 

 such facts have, so far as the farmer and poulterer are 

 concerned, but time and space do not permit. 



CONTAINS AN ABUNDANCE OF INSTRUCTIVE DATA. 



Part n of this volume has been prepared in a manner 

 which, it is believed, will prove in future ^ears, thai 

 the mone.v ex{x^uded for its publication has ueen well 

 spent. If this document reaches the farmers, for 

 wliose especial use it has been written, and its pages 

 are carefully perused, they (or many of them) can be 

 enlightened in various directions. In addition to the 

 author's careful field observations, he has quoted freely 

 from numerous publications of the best naturalists, 

 as well as from written communications of hundreds of 

 intelligent and observant farmers and other persons 

 throughout this Commonwealth, 



FOOLISH AND EXPENSIVE LEGISLATION. 



Prior to the passage of the famous and odious 

 bounty act of June 23, 1885, which provided for llie 

 payment of bounties for tlie destrnctiou of various 

 kinds of beneficial animals, clothed either in fur or 

 feathers, as well as some few species of both birds 

 and mammals, which investigations of economic 

 zoologists have shown to be detrimental to the game 

 and poultry interests, hawks and owls were much more 

 uunierous, both in the summer and winter seasons, 

 than they have been since this "Scalp act" was in force. 



A SERIOUS BLUNDER. 



The payment of nearly ninety thousand dollars in a 

 period of less than two yea is by our citizens f<»i' the 

 tieads of liawks and owls was nncjuestionably a serious 



