PROTECT THE BIBDS. 69 



in some States which are outlawed in others, or are treated as game birds in some 

 and not so treated in others. 



Birds, as regards legislation, may well be divided into two classes game birds, 

 and birds which are not such; and the laws relating to each class should be separate 

 and distinct. The game birds should be left to the care of sportsmen and game 

 protective associations, since self-interest on the part of the more intelligent sports- 

 men will dictate more or less wise legislation for the preservation of the birds on 

 which their sport depends. But in respect to game birds, public opinion should be 

 so far enlightened as to secure the enforcement of proper legislative enactments, 

 which is notoriously not the case at present. All other birds should be left to the 

 care of bird-lovers and humanitarians, who should see that proper laws for their 

 preservation are not only enacted, but duly enforced. As already shown in preced- 

 ing pages of this supplement, those who know best, from having scientifically in- 

 vestigated the subject, are convinced that none of our native birds should be outlawed 

 as unqualifiedly, or even to any serious degree, injurious. A few exceptions might 

 be made, were it practicable, but in the general ignorance of legislators and of the pub- 

 lic generally, or their inability to make proper distinction through inability to rec- 

 ognize by proper names one kind of hawk, for instance, from another, the safe way 

 is to attempt no such discrimination in legislation. The slight harm resulting from 

 protecting half a dozen species more or less harmful would be more than offset by 

 the indiscriminate destruction which would necessarily result from such a loophole. 



The reason for keeping legislation respecting game birds distinct from that re- 

 lating to the other species is mainly to avoid conflict of interests respecting such 

 legislation, which is more or less sure to follow in any attempt at combined legisla- 

 tion respecting all birds in one act. Sportsmen's clubs and game protective asso- 

 ciations in attempting to provide proper game laws often find strong opponents in 

 the game-dealers and market-gunners, who often succeed in defeating judicious 

 legislation. If all birds are treated under the same act, attempts to improve the 

 portions of such acts as relate to useful birds are often prevented through opposi- 

 tion to certain clauses of the game sections obnoxious to pot-hunters and game- 

 dealers, as has recently been the case with attempted judicious amendments to the 

 bird laws in the State of Massachusetts. 



There should also be some provision for collecting birds, their nests and eggs, for 

 scientific purposes, in behalf of our natural history museums, and of scientific prog- 

 ress in ornithology. As already shown in these articles, the birds destroyed in the 

 interest of science, notwithstanding the outcry to the contrary from certain sources, 

 are relatively few in comparison to the number destroyed for millinery and other 

 mercenary purposes so small as not to materially affect the decrease of any species. 

 But such license, unless rigidly guarded, is liable to abuse, and should be hedged 

 about with every practicable safeguard. The number of such licenses issued in any 

 State should be very small; they should be granted with strictest regard to the fitness 

 of the recipient to be allowed such a favor; and their abuse or misuse made a mis- 

 demeanor, subject to severe penalties. Obviously, the power to grant them should, 

 so far as possible, be vested in persons having some knowledge of ornithology, or 

 who are able to recognize the difference between collecting birds for scientific pur- 

 poses and as " curiosities," or for traffic other than strictly in the interest of science. 

 It should be further understood that these licenses grant no immunity from the 

 ordinary laws of trespass, or laws against the use of firearms at improper times or 

 places, or in violation of any of the provisions of game protective acts. The system 

 of issuing such licenses has needlessly been brought into disrepute through the gross 

 ignorance and apathy of the general public as to their real purpose and limitations. 

 For most of the abuses of the system there is already abundant remedy. Any per- 



