2o6 Conservation Reader 



travel with the changing seasons from north to south across 

 different countries. If the people of one country protect 

 them and those of another do not, they may easily become 

 exterminated. Some species have become extinct in the 

 last fifty years, and others have been reduced to a few pairs 

 in regions where they were once seen in thousands. 



There are three things that have brought about this 

 slaughter of the birds. The first is himting them for food. 

 This was not so serious until the market hunters began 

 their work. Then the small game birds that were salable 

 quickly began to disappear. In most of our states the sale 

 of game birds in the market is now prohibited. 



Another cause for the decrease in the birds is the wanton 

 shooting of some just for sport, and the hunting of others 

 that are mistakenly supposed to be harmful. We cannot 

 wholly stop this until we teach people to respect the birds, 

 to love them for their music, and to appreciate the great 

 good which many of them do by their destruction of insects 

 and small animal pests. 



Many of the birds which we have too often tried to kiU 

 or drive away are among the best friends we have. When 

 we have learned all about their habits and their food, we 

 shall find that only a very few are really harmful, and that 

 the others abundantly repay the toll that they take of our 

 produce. The farmer and the fruit grower should be par- 

 ticularly interested in protecting and encouraging the birds. 

 If the birds pull up the sprouting seeds in your garden, do 

 not kill them but protect the plants with wire screens. It 

 is likely that these very birds feed largely upon the insects 

 that are so harmful to your crops. 



If the children in our schools could spend a little of their 



