CHAPTER LV. 



HOW TO HAVE THE BIRDS. 



The Indiana Audubon Society was organized April 26, 

 1898. I am proud of the fact that I was one of its charter mem- 

 bers. Its good work for the birds has been notable. At that 

 meeting I read the following paper, under the title, "The 

 Preservation of Natural Forest Areas : Their Influence on 

 Birds." I said : "It requires no argument to prove that the 

 preservation of forest areas is essential to the well-being and 

 preservation of our birds. It is recorded that Noah "sent 

 forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from 

 off the face of the ground ; but the dove found no rest for the 

 soles of her feet. And again he sent forth the dove out of the 

 ark, and the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in 

 her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off." Since the making 

 of this record, the two trees and birds have been insepar- 

 ably connected, and the preservation and well being of the 

 one is essential to that of the other. The forests furnish shel- 

 ter, food and nestings for the birds; and the birds distribute 

 seeds of the trees and destroy those things which are so des- 

 tructive of them. 



"In the Atlantic Monthly for August, 1897, Mr. John 

 Muir, the lover of forests, and the agitator of their preser- 

 vation, says : 'The forests of America, however slighted by 

 man, must have been a great delight to God ; for they were 

 the best He ever planted. The whole continent was a garden, 

 and from the beginning it seemed to be favored above all the 

 other wild parks and gardens of the globe. So they ap- 

 peared centuries ago when they were rejoicing in wildness. 

 The Indians with stone axes could do them no more harm 

 than could gnawing beavers and browsing moose. Even the 



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