24 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
well-known bird is as fond of fruit as we are, as good a judge 
of fruit, and has no more scruples than the average school- 
boy about stealing it. Yet the Robin (Aerula migratoria) 
belongs to a thoroughly insectivorous family (7urdide), and 
is on the whole one of our most useful birds. The quantity 
of noxious insects consumed by every nestful of young 
Robins that ever was hatched is out of all proportion to the 
amount of fruit destroyed. The Robin is a public benefactor, 
and exacts but a small fee or reward for his valuable services. 
This is a type of the class of cases here in question; and 
since throughout this class, the little injury done is trifling in 
comparison with the great benefit conferred, all such birds 
should be fully protected by law. 
Thus far in my. remarks, I have written without a trace of 
sentiment, without any insistence upon humane considera- 
tions, solely from the standpoint of enlightened selfishness. 
Here the case might rest as a strong appeal to the most 
mercenary motives for the preservation of birds from need- 
less, wanton, and misdirected destruction. Nearly all birds 
require our protection, for the good of our pockets, in a 
matter of dollars and cents. We need more bird laws, and 
better ones, more adequate to the emergency and more 
rigidly enforced, for our own protection, to say nothing of 
what right to life, liberty, and happiness we may choose to 
concede to birds, or elect to withhold from them. Such 
laws as we have are inadequate, only exceptionally enforced, 
and mainly concern open or close seasons in which certain 
game birds may or may not be killed. Some of our statutes 
are not only fatuous or fatally defective, but also positively 
pernicious. Witness that Pennsylvania law which offered 
a premium on the destruction of Hawks and Owls, and was 
only repealed when rodents overran the state in the most 
legitimate manner. This was like that California statute to 
promote the extermination of coyotes, which resulted in such 
a plague of rabbits that the destruction of these long-legged 
rodents required active and concerted public measures. It 
