BIRD-PROTECTION 



173 



if you please — of the bird-world. Consider 

 how you can promote its enjoyment, its better- 

 ment, and its perpetuation. Think not that in 

 order to take an interest in birds it is necessary 

 to buy a gun and a bushel of cartridges. Don't 

 think that a badly made bird-skin in a smelly 

 drawer is as pleasing an object in the sight of 

 God or man as the living bird would be. Do not, 

 I beg of you, make a "collection of bird-skins;" 

 for the "bird-skin habit," when given free rein, 

 becomes a scourge to the bird-world. 



Do not think that ornithology is the science of 

 dead birds, named in a dead language; or that 

 an attic room is the best field for the study of 

 birds. Study bird-life, not merely the mummied 

 remains of dead birds. And, finally, don't col- 

 lect eggs! They teach no useful lesson. The 

 majority of them have no beauty, and are as 

 meaningless as marbles. The pursuit of them 

 is interesting, I grant, but the possession nearly 

 always palls. The collector of eggs destroys 

 life, fearfully, and has for all his labors and his 

 pains only such as this: — O O o o. 



If you think enough of birds to mount, or have 

 mounted, every fine specimen that you kill — 

 aside from legitimate game — then you will be 

 justified in forming a collection. There is some 

 excuse for collections of well-mounted birds, 

 especially those that are presented to schools, 

 where thousands of young people may study 

 them; but wild life is now becoming so scarce 

 that the making of large private collections, for 

 the benefit of one man, is a sin against Nature. 



Don't be narrow. — In studying birds, do not 

 be narrow! Use the field-glass, the camera and 

 pencil, rather than the shot-gun and the micro- 

 scope. Any fool with a gun can kill a bird; but 

 it takes intelligence and skill to photograph 

 one. 



The time was when the analysis and classifi- 

 cation of our American birds were important 

 work, because the bird fauna was only partially 

 discovered and written up. In their days, 

 Audubon, Wilson, Baird and Coues did grand 

 work, because so many birds were strange, and 

 needed introducing. The time was when analyz- 

 ing, naming, and working up geographical dis- 

 tribution were desirable and necessary. But in 

 North America that period has gone by. There 

 is no longer any real need for new technical 

 books on the birds of this continent north of 



Mexico. The describing, and re-describing, the 

 naming, re-naming and tre-naming of microscopic 

 varieties, has been done enough, and in places 

 overdone. 



What to do. — Henceforth, these are the things 

 to be done with and for our American birds : 



1. Join actively in protecting the few birds 

 that remain, and help to save them from com- 

 plete extermination. 



2. Aid in teaching the millions how to know 

 and enjoy the beautiful and useful birds without 

 destroying them. 



It is not at all necessary that people generally 

 should be able to name correctly every bird that 

 the forest and field may disclose. Many species 

 of warblers, and sparrows, and larger birds also, 

 are so much alike that it is very difficult for any 

 one save a trained ornithologist to analyze them 

 correctly. The general public is not interested 

 in differences that are nearly microscopic. When 

 birds and mammals cannot be recognized with- 

 out killing them, and removing their skulls, it is 

 quite time for some of us to draw the line. 



It is entirely possible for any intelligent person 

 to become well acquainted with at least one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five of our birds without killing 

 one ; and any person who can at sight recognize 

 and claim acquaintance with that number of bird- 

 species may justly claim to be well informed on 

 our birds. Because birds are more common than 

 quadrupeds, bird-books are also more common, 

 and now the most of them are beautifully illus- 

 trated. The road to ornithology is now strewn 

 with flowers, and the rough places have been 

 made smooth. 



The Vastness of the Bird-World. — Go where 

 you will upon this earth — save in the great des- 

 erts — some members of the bird-world will either 

 bear you company, or greet you as you advance. 

 Some will sing to cheer you, others will interest 

 and amuse you by the oddities of their forms 

 and ways. On the mountain back-bone of the 

 continent, you will meet the spruce-grouse, the 

 raven, and the mountain-jay. In the foothills 

 and on the great sage-brush plains, the stately 

 sage-grouse and the garrulous magpie still break 

 the monotony. 



In the fertile regions of abundant rain, bird- 

 life is — or rather was once — bewildering in its- 

 variety. In the tropics, the gorgeous colors 

 and harsh voices of the birds remind you that 



