328 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



Meek little Mrs. Phoebe was more easily reconciled than I and be- 

 gan to repair the nest, covering the one egg that had not hatched. 

 She laid three eggs and began to sit. As soon as she began to sit he 

 left again — I hoped, for good. 



When the birds were about half grown I noticed they looked droopy. 

 Mother picked one up and her hands were covered with tiny lice. The 

 nest was swarming with them so we tore it down and sprayed the en- 

 tire porch with brine. 



I think Mrs. Phoebe must have believed in the maxim, "If at first 

 you don't succeed, try, try again," for in the latter part of the summer 

 we found a nest in the granery. The granery is built in a side hill and 

 the south side of the basement is left open. The nest was built on a 

 railroad spike that is driven into a beam. So far as I know, nothing 

 happened to this nest full. 



Maude L. Miller, Springbrook, Mich. 



DON'T KILL THE BIRDS. 



"'Tis a beautiful morning," a sportsman said. The world looks so 

 happy let's each take a gun and go out and kill something for pas- 

 time and fun. And proudest be him who counts the most dead." 



They blotted out lives that were happy and good; blinded eyes, and 

 broke wings that delighted to soar. They killed for mere pleasure and 

 crippled and tore. Regardless of aught but the hunger for blood. 



''Tis a beautiful morning," a sportsman cried, who carried a kodak 

 instead of a gun. "The world looks so happy, so golden the sun; I'll 

 slip to the woods; where wild things hide." The deer that he shot 

 never dreamed of his aim, the birds he caught went on with their song, 

 peace followed his footsteps, not slaughter and wrong; yet rich were 

 his trophies and varied his game. 



Dr. W. C. Graj 7 , editor of the Interior, speaking of his experience in 

 killing a deer some years ago, and his determinatian never to kill 

 another, said: "I wish the gentle and innocent things could know of 

 my conversion to Christianity." 



We are told in the Bible that "God created every winged fowl after 

 his kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, say- 

 ing: "Be fruitful, and let fowl multiply in the earth." 



It is a sad fact that man is not permitting the birds of the air to mul- 

 tiply as God directed; they are wantonly killed for sport of man, and 

 boys destroy thousands of eggs and nestlings each year. 



Fashion decrees that women must wear the plumage of wild birds for 

 ornaments. Glance at the bonnets atany church service and note the 



