in South Carolina 49 



have tried bounty legislation shows that such a method is 

 unwise. 



Besides being an expense to the State, bounty laws en- 

 courage idleness, by inviting loafers to roam the woods 

 and fields at all seasons, and as a consequence all kinds of 

 birds would be destroyed. A bounty on English Sparrows 

 would result in the destruction of many of our native use- 

 ful species, for few people know the difference, and be- 

 sides there are other ways of dealing with this pest. A 

 bounty on hawks would cause many beneficial ones to be 

 killed. In paying the bounty, a competent naturalist 

 would have to be employed in each county to pass on the 

 birds. 



Bounty laws work injury to agriculture. In any discus- 

 sion of this subject the case of Pennsylvania is always 

 cited. In 1885 a law was passed providing for the pay- 

 ment of a bounty of fifty cents each for the scalps of 

 hawks and owls. This caused wholesale slaughter. In 

 ten years, 180,000 scalps had been brought in, and $90,- 

 000 paid out. It was estimated that the loss to the agri- 

 culture of the State in two years from mice, rats, and 

 insects which had been held in check by these hawks and 

 owls, amounted to $2,000,000, and the law was quickly 

 repealed. 



One observer reports: "In burnt lands hawks do most 

 harm. Burning of country should be prohibited until 

 hawks migrate.' ' On this subject it is instructive and 

 interesting to quote what Wayne says: "When the woods 

 and fields are annually burnt over, the smoke attracts 

 nearly all the Sparrow Hawks in a radius of many miles, 

 who come to feed upon grasshoppers, crickets and other 

 insects that are trying to escape from the flames. On this 

 occasion it is not unusual to see besides the Sparrow 

 Hawks, numbers of Red-tailed and Florida Red-shouldered 

 hawks. These hawks are so intent upon catching insects 

 that they seem to be utterly oblivious of the smoke and 

 sparks." 1 



1 Wayne, (A. T.) Birds of South Carolina. Charleston Museum, 

 Charleston, S. C, p. 79. 



