The Audubon Societies 
country to pamper the taste of foreign 
gourmands? 
Nature, with her infinite wisdom, 
created birds for a definite and specific 
purpose, and placed them where they 
would do the most good in preserving 
the exact balance she insists upon. 
When man steps in to disarrange this 
balance, he is taking a dangerous step. 
The members of this Congress should 
protest against any marked disarrange- 
ment of nature’s accurate plans by the 
plume and game dealers, who reap a 
paltry individual benefit by the de- 
struction of the assets of a state that are 
of the utmost scientific importance and 
economic value. The paltry sum realized 
by these individuals for the dead bird 
cannot be compared for a moment with 
the enormous value of the live bird to 
the agriculture and forestry of a state. 
Let us as scientists insist that the con- 
servation of birds, rather than the waste 
of birds, is the best plan for every coun- 
try in the world. 
When the world awakened to the fact 
that peace was more conducive to happi- 
ness than war, and a Peace Conference 
was called at the Hague in 1907, forty- 
three signatory countries participated 
in the Conference. 
While it is possible that the preserva- 
tion of wild birds, which are so necessary 
for the agricultural interests of the world, 
is not quite as important a subject to 
consider as the peace of the world, yet 
it certainly can take the second place. I 
conceive it to be the duty of this Orni- 
thological Congress to recommend to the 
forty-three countries which participated 
in the second International Peace Con- 
ference, and as many others as it is pos- 
sible to get to cooperate, that they enter 
into an agreement, one of vital importance 
and from which will accrue lasting bene- 
fits. 
The agreement suggested is that no 
country in the future shall permit any 
of its wild birds or their eggs to be shipped 
out of its territory, either alive or dead, 
for food or millinery ornaments, or any 
other commercial purpose whatever. 
171 
Further, that in the future no country 
shall permit the importation into its 
territory of any wild birds, either alive 
or dead, or their eggs, to be used for food 
or millinery ornaments, or any other 
commercial purpose whatsoever. In this 
way the laws between the countries party 
to this agreement become reciprocal, and 
each country will be able to retain its own 
wild birds for the benefit of its agriculture 
and forestry, and its own citizens; each 
signatory power will help each of the other 
countries to enforce the non-export regu- 
lations by having a non-import regulation 
relating te the wild birds of any other 
country. These laws or regulations should 
cover every bird of a country; there should 
be absolutely no exceptions made what- 
ever, except that under proper govern- 
mental restrictions in the form of a license, 
live birds might be exchanged for propa- 
gation, and dead birds as specimens for 
the scientific study of ornithology in 
natural history museums, and private 
collections of a strictly scientific character. 
These two drains upon the bird life of a 
country would be so small that it would 
not be appreciable, and at the same time 
it would advance the cause of bird pro- 
tection by giving each country a knowl- 
edge of the avifauna of all other coun- 
tries, and would also enable any country 
to engage in the experiment of propa- 
gating extralimital species. 
Such an agreement as the above may 
appear drastic, but it certainly is the only 
possible way to change the present dis- 
tressing conditions regarding the wild 
birds of the world. 
Members of the Congress, a vital 
question is now before us. We cannot 
avoid the issue by closing our eyes to it. 
It is for us who love birds, who understand 
birds, who have a scientific knowledge of 
the question, and who represent countries 
widely separated from each other, to give 
this matter serious and aggressive atten- 
tion. We will not be performing our duty 
nor embracing the great privilege that 
we have of conserving bird life, if we do 
not at this Congress take the necessary 
steps that will result in changing the 
