Protection of North American Birds. 165 



untasteful hat-gear give employment to many a needy hand, 

 and add materially to the milliner's gains ? Why is not 

 their use for personal decoration, a la sauvage, as legitimate 

 and defensible as their use for food, with the added advan- 

 tage of being able to utilize decoratively a great many 

 species otherwise of no commercial value ? Why should we 

 be anxious to preserve our birds ? Are they, when alive, of 

 any practical value, or do they contribute in any way to our 

 pleasure or well-being ? 



u In regard to the first of these inquiries, the men and boys 

 really get little more in the average for the raw material 

 than enough to pay them for their powder and shot : it is 

 the ' sport ' that affords them their real reward. The middle- 

 men, — the skinners and manufacturers, — and an occasional 

 professional gunner, make most of the profit, which must be 

 more or less considerable to induce them to run the gaunt- 

 let of public opinion and the occasional risks of prosecution 

 in their illegal enterprise. The milliner shares, of course, 

 in the profits of the trade in such supplies ; but, if birds 

 were not used to such an extent, other and more fitting 

 decorations would be adopted in their place, and their busi- 

 ness would not suffer. 



" Respecting the latter inquiries, birds may be said to have 

 a practical value of high importance and an aesthetic value 

 not easily overestimated. Birds in general are the friends 

 of man, and it is doubtful whether a single species can be 

 named which is not more beneficial than harmful. The 

 great mass of our smaller birds, numbering hundreds of 

 species, are the natural checks upon the undue multiplica- 

 tion of insect-pests. Many of them rarely make use of other 

 than insect-food, while all, as shown by scientific investiga- 

 tions already made, depend largely or wholly, during con- 

 siderable periods of the year, upon an insect-diet. Even the 

 ill-reputed hawks and owls prey upon field-mice, grasshop- 

 pers, and other noxious insects or vermin, some never mo- 

 lesting the farmer's poultry, and others only exceptionally. 

 In the present general summary of the subject, it may be 

 sufficient to say, that, while the beneficial qualities of birds 

 vary widely with the species, none can be set down as 



