Al4 USEFUL BIRDS. 
them with houses will always be their friend. Boys should 
be taught to exchange the gun for the camera, the sketch 
book, or the note book. Children should be cautioned not 
to disturb the nests of birds during the breeding season ; but 
the nest census, taken after the leaves have fallen, is instruct- 
ive and harmless. 
An educational propaganda should be carried on in those 
States in which the birds that breed in Massachusetts or 
pass through it are killed in their migrations. Every State 
should have an official economic ornithologist, among whose 
duties should be investigation of the relations of birds to 
insect and other pests, and the production of popular leafiets 
and newspaper articles on birds and their conservation. 
When public sentiment in favor of bird protection is thor- 
oughly aroused, then, and not till then, will effective laws 
be enacted, respected, and enforced. 
Game Protection. 
The conservation of fish and game is a vital preliminary 
step in bird protection. 
It is plain that, having necessarily destroyed the larger 
predatory animals, man must hold in check the creatures 
on which they formerly fed. This is the task of the angler 
and the sportsman, and it is a legitimate one, in so far as 
it disposes of only the surplus fish, mammals, and birds ; 
but the tendency to go farther than this must be sharply 
curbed, for wherever the larger game mammals and game 
birds are exterminated, people begin to shoot the smaller 
species. So long as the supply of game is kept up, just so 
long are the song birds comparatively safe. 
A mere glance at the history of game legislation in 
Massachusetts or any other eastern State is enough to make 
one wonder that any native game now exists. From the 
settlement of Massachusetts until the year 1817 there was 
practically no limit to the amount of bird shooting that any 
one might legally do at any season of the year. Until 
that year the only legislation enacted regarding birds pro- 
vided bounties for their destruction. Among other species, 
the Ruffed Grouse or Partridge was the victim of local 
