THE DISAPPEAEANCE OF WILD LIFE 49 



the young birds to perish in the nests. It is "practical business" 

 that is destroying our forests, polluting our streams, destroying 

 our fish, and exterminating our noble wild animals and game 

 birds. 



One great cause of bird destruction is the thousands of 

 ignorant men, boys and idle negroes, who, in spite of our 

 bird and game protection laws, roam the country continually, 

 with cheap shot guns, target rifles and air guns, shoot- 

 ing little sandpipers, swallows, martins, nighthawks, field-larks, 

 blackbirds, woodpeckers, robins, doves and other useful birds, 

 at any and all times of the year for "sport" or for food. These 

 "sandpiper sportsmen" as Dr. Hornaday calls them, often en- 

 couraged and emboldened by neighborly tolerance for law-break- 

 ing bird-killers, and sympathetic judges and juries, are without 

 sense or reason ruthlessly destroying millions of valuable insect 

 eating birds, which are the farmers best friends. 



Another cause of great bird destruction is the half-bred, half- 

 trained bird dog, which roams over the country unrestrained by 

 his irresponsible owner, disturbing the ground birds during their 

 breeding season, and destroying many nests, eggs and young 

 birds. 



Sooner or later the American people will realize the fact that 

 the destruction of useful birds is a grave emergency that seri- 

 ously affects the cost of living. Government investigations show 

 that an immense number of birds of great economic value are 

 being destroyed annually and that some of the most useful 

 species are becoming very scarce. Whole forests are dying, and 

 shade trees are in danger, because the woodpeckers have been 

 killed off, and now the tree doctors are trying to take the wood- 

 pecker's place and attend to his duties, at so much per tree. Boll 

 weevils and a thousand other insect pests are damaging our 

 crops to the extent of millions of dollars annually, and mos- 

 quitoes, flies and vermin are spreading disease in all directions. 

 Thousands of dollars are being expended in expensive spraying 

 machinery and other devices for destroying scale insects, ticks, 

 plant lice, caterpillars, grubs, cut-worms, etc., and we are trying 

 to do the work with sprayers that nature intended the birds to do. 



Scientists assert that man could not exist on the earth, without 

 the protection given him by birds, that insects are the greatest 

 peril to mankind, and the birds the most indispensable balancing 

 force of nature. How many members of our State Legislature 

 who have introduced or voted for bills and amendments to re- 

 move restrictions from the killing of wild birds, are there who 



