WHAT BIRDS DO FOR US 5 



few culprits among the hawks and owls, and only one little 

 sinner not a bird of prey, stand convicted and condemned 

 to die. When it came to a verdict on the English sparrow, 

 after the most thorough and impartial trial any bird ever 

 received, every thumb, alas! was turned down. But hav- 

 ing proven itself fittest to survive in the struggle for 

 existence after ages of competition with the birds of the 

 Old World, being obedient to nature's great law, it will defy 

 man's legislation to exterminate it. Toilers in our over- 

 populated cities, children of the slums, see at least one bird 

 that is not afraid to live among them the year around. 



One of the first good effects of the Government's scien- 

 tific investigation of birds, and the consequent white- 

 washing of bird characters that ensued, was the with- 

 drawal of bounties by many states. Pennsylvania, for 

 instance, woke up to realize that her notorious "scalp act" 

 had lost her farmers many millions of dollars through the 

 ravages of field mice, because the wholesale slaughter of all 

 hawks and owls, regardless of their food and habits, had 

 been systematically encouraged. A little knowledge on 

 the part of legislators, backed by an immense amount of 

 popular ignorance and prejudice against all of the so-called 

 birds of prey, proved to be a very dangerous thing. Even 

 better than the withdrawal of bounties is the action taken 

 by many states to protect the birds. Instead of laying 

 stress upon only the apparent evil in nature, as undevel- 

 oped pagans did, we are at last putting the emphasis where 

 it rightly belongs — upon the good. 



The Partition of Appetites 



Whoever takes any notice of the birds about us cannot 

 fail to be impressed with the regulation of that department 



