A PREFATORY NOTE 



There has grown up in the United States, within the 

 past ten years, a widespread interest in birds, the extent 

 of which has never been equalled in this or any other 

 country. Along with the desire to acquire more knowledge 

 regarding the habits and activities of these feathered 

 denizens of the great Outside has arisen a sense of personal 

 obUgation to aid all movements that tend toward safe- 

 guarding their Uves and prolonging their usefulness. As a 

 result, the popular support for the enactment of important 

 State and Federal laws for the conservation of wild birds 

 and animals has given profound astonishment to those, be- 

 nighted persons whose custom it has been to accumulate 

 wealth by the destruction of wild creatures for the markets 

 ofTered by the game-dealer and the millinery feather- 

 merchant. This was well illustrated in 19 lo, when the 

 people of New York State arose almost in mass and de- 

 manded of the Legislature that it pass the Audubon 

 Society's bill to prohibit the sale of birds' feathers; and 

 again in 19 13, when there was pending in the Tariff Bill the 

 proviso to prohibit the importation of the feathers of wild 

 birds. More than two hundred thousand letters and tele- 

 grams of approval poured in upon the desks of the Senators 

 and Congressmen in Washington. 



The enactment of the Federal Migratory Bird Bill, also 

 in 1913, would not have been possible a few years before, 

 as numerous unsuccessful attempts had demonstrated. 



As a natural consequence of these manifestations of 



