50 MOCKINGBIRD. 
In this connection I quote the following from a letter of Mr. E. K. Turner, of 
Providence, Florida: “I had two large old Cape jasmine trees (Gardenia) in my back 
yard. They were about twelve feet high and fully fifteen feet in diameter, forming a 
dense, almost impenetrable, mass of green. Mockingbirds had their nests in these bushes 
every spring for years. I think they were the same birds, for generally they used the 
same old nest after a few repairings. They were so tame as to fly in the kitchen and 
drink from the kitchen bucket. I made a habit of scattering a little food for them. 
They also would fly down and eat with the poultry. These tropical trees were destroyed 
by fire, and the birds disappeared from the yard.” 
Though the Mockingbird destroys innumerable noxious insects, though it possesses 
such a high esthetic value, still man, heartless, unfeeling, ignorant man, who lacks all 
sense of beauty in nature, is one of the Mockingbird’s greatest foes. Because it takes a 
small part of his fruits and berries, it is, regardless of the innumerable noxious insects 
which it consumes, killed in large numbers.—In the South, where it. was common only 
a few years ago, the numbers of the beautiful songster have been fearfully diminished, 
and farther North, where it was never very common, it is almost exterminated. 
Mr. Carl Danzer writes: ‘‘We hear complaints from Louisiana of the disappearance 
of the Mockingbird. There as elsewhere the birds are shot, year in year out, by villanous 
boys, both old and young, and as the bird loves to settle near human dwellings, its 
very trustfulness leads to its own destruction. Then there is the unfortunate circum- 
stance that the bird is adapted to cage-life and brings a high price; this is the cause of 
the nests being eagerly sought and robbed of their half-fledged occupants. Carloads of 
Mockingbirds are sent annually from the South to the North.—In St. Louis and its 
vicinity the Mockingbird was common only a few years ago; now it has become rare. 
Notwithstanding the severity of Missouri bird-laws it has disappeared almost completely 
from all the public parks. As far as their enforcement by the police is concerned, the 
laws are a dead letter. We do not know of a single case in which the police have made 
-an arrest for the transgression of the law.—Should matters continue as heretofore, all 
the American birds of attractive plumage or voice will be exterminated, at least in the 
neighborhood of our larger cities. Only the most severe laws, enforced by the most 
vigilant public sentiment, can be of any service. Laws for the protection of our birds 
should be instituted everywhere, and the public, especially the farmers, should see that 
they are executed to the letter. The shipping of living native birds from one State to 
another as also the transportation of bird-skins, hundreds of thousands of which are 
sent even to foreign countries for millinery purposes, should be forbidden under penalty 
of heavy punishment. Only the severest laws, enforced without compunction, can effect- 
ually stop the demoralizing, shameful love of destruction, which threatens to rob our 
landscapes of their most charming bird-life.’”’ 
Let me add to these words of a kind-hearted friend of nature, that especially 
the press and the schools should take hold of the laws for bird-protection and see 
that they are enforced. Parents and teachers, divines and newspapers can do infinite 
good in this matter.—Cruelty must vanish and yield to a nobler, kinder mode of 
thinking! 
In this country the Mockingbird is caged more frequently than is any other native 
