266 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



so comparatively recent that, wicked as it admittedly is, it 

 must be given second rank. 



For a long time all birds not used for food were ignored 

 by the American people. Before there was a demand for 

 their feathers and skins they were simply let alone. But 

 when game-birds became scarce, and many foreign immi- 

 grants, accustomed abroad to eating small birds, had come 

 to our shores, and rampant fashion had set bird plumes 

 among her gods, destruction began. All the serious dangers 

 that beset the birds, at least those of human origin, have 

 been operating only a comparatively short time. Then, again, 

 it is only a few years since the food habits of such birds have 

 been well understood. In view of all this, it is not strange 

 that protective laws were late in making their appearance on 

 our statute-books. Although game-birds were protected by 

 law early in the nineteenth century, it was in 1850 that "small 

 and harmless birds" were given a legal standing. In that year 

 both Connecticut and New Jersey protected most of the com- 

 mon small birds and their eggs by fixing a fine for each bird or 

 egg destroyed. Other States gradually followed suit, but in 

 fourteen years only twelve States and the District of Columbia 

 had adopted such laws. It was not long, however, before 

 bird-slaughter became notorious, and then legislation quickly 

 became general. "Insectivorous and song-birds" was the 

 term often employed in framing these laws ; but that term 

 was too loose and narrow. The slaughter of plume-birds led 

 to their protection in Florida and Texas, where it was espe- 

 cially severe, and by degrees they have come to be included 

 in the number protected by many States. Even birds of prey, 

 since it has been found that there are only half a dozen 

 injurious species out of the whole family — or, rather, so much 

 of it as is found in the United States, numbering about ninety 

 — have come in for statutory shelter in several States. There 

 is a deeply-rooted prejudice against them, however, that can- 

 not be overcome in one generation, even by figures ; the acts 



