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 {Mcrula migratorid) 

 belongs to a thoroughly insectivorous family {Ttirdidce), 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 only repealed when rodents overran the state in the most 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 



