bluiider, and oue wliicli lias been I he indiicct cause ol 

 very ronsiderable l(»ss id ilie aj^riciilinial inleresls of 

 our Commonwealth, 



DON'T ADVOCATE UNWISE BOUNTY ACTS. 



During the past ten or twelve years a large numbei 

 of our citizens have urged Pennsylvania's lawmakers 

 to enact bounty or scalp acts, whereby premiums 

 could be given for the desti'uciion of different kinds of 

 birds and other animals, which it was very generally 

 supposed subsisted almost wholly on poultry and game 

 of different varieties. Acts of Assembly in this direc- 

 tion were passed and it was soon demonstrated after 

 they were in active operation, that the loss occasioned 

 by the killing of beneficial animals was much moi-e 

 harmful than otherwise. 



BIRDS OF PREY AS A CLASS BENEFICIAL. 



The note books of the writer who was authorized a 

 few years since by Secretary Thomas J. Edge to in- 

 vestigate the economic status of the raptorial birds, 

 for whose luckless "heads and ears" a premium of tlfty 

 cents each was paid, show that of about 50U of these 

 birds w^hose decapitated bodies were obtained from 

 justices of the peace and magistrates, only G9, or a 

 little less than one-seventh, were detrimental kinds, viz: 

 Cooper's Hawk, 25; Sharp shinned Hawk. 16; Great 

 Horned Owl, 13; liarred Owl. 10; DucK Hawk. 2: 

 Pigeon Hawks, 2; and Goshawk, 1. The remainder 

 were species which post-morten examinations clearl.'v 

 demonstrated were of immense value to aid in keepinij 

 in check the prolific and destructive field mice as well 

 as several kinds of insects wliicli do great injury to 

 cultivated crops. 



