XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 
“Respecting the latter inquiries, birds may be said to have a practical value of high 
importance and an esthetic 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 multiplication o1 insect-pests. Many 
of them rarely make use of other than insect-food, while all, as shown by scientific 
investigations already made, depend largely or wholly, during considerable periods of 
the year, upon an insect-diet.* Even the ill-reputed Hawks and Owls prey upon field- 
mice, grasshoppers, and other noxious insects or vermin, some never molesting. 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 proven to be unmitigatedly injurious. 
With the decrease of birds at any point is noted an increase of insects, especially of 
kinds injurious to agriculture. The relation of birds to agriculture has been studied as 
yet but imperfectly; but results could be cited which would go far to substantiate the 
above statement of their general utility. It is a matter for congratulation, that the 
investigation of the subject has now been systematically entered upon by the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture at Washington, under the supervision of experts especially fitted 
for the work. 
“Birds, considered xsthetically, are among the most graceful in movement and 
form, and the most beautiful and attractive in coloration, of nature’s many gifts to 
man. Add to this their vivacity, their melodious voices and unceasing activity,— 
charms shared in only small degree by any other forms of life,—and can we well say 
that we are prepared to see them exterminated in behalf of fashion, or to gratify a 
depraved taste?* Says a recent writer, ‘A garden without flowers, childhood without 
laughter, an orchard without blossoms, a sky without color, roses without perfume, 
are the analogues of a country without song birds. And the United States are going 
straight and swift into that desert condition.’ 
“Indeed, as previously noted, there is already an encouraging recognition of that 
fact. Here and there bird-protective associations are being formed, and more care is 
taken to secure proper bird-protective legislation; but the public at large is still too 
apathetic, or too ignorant of the real state of the case, to insist upon, and support by 
proper public sentiment, the enforcement of legislative acts already on our statute-books. 
The American Ornithologists’ Union has moved in the matter by the appointment of a 
large and active committee on bird-protection, which is at present bending its energies 
toward the diffusion of information among the people, in the hope of awakening a 
healthy sentiment on the subject, and is also working to secure-not only more effective 
and intelligent legislation, but the proper enforcement of the laws enacted in behalf of 
birds. This, too, notwithstanding a recent writer in a popular magazine characterized 
ornithologists as being among the worst enemies birds have, and to whose égg-collect- 
ing and bird-stuffing propensities was principally attributed the woful decrease of our 
song birds? 
“In England the same rage for hat decoration with dead birds has gone so far 
* Italics my own. TEN, 
