English sparrow and a few hawks and owls are condemned to ex- 

 termination by this verdict of the department, while, on the other 

 hand, some species formerly considered noxious are ,found to be 

 decidedly useful. Everybody knows something about the cam- 

 paign against the use of birds for millinery, and the measure of 

 support that it has received. Our government and the various 

 states are slowly modifying their legislation and coming to a more 

 rational way of dealing with this question. Hereafter questions 

 involving the welfare of any of our birds are likely to be referred 

 to experts and not left entirely to the whims of the selfish or the 

 tender mercies of the careless. 



Of the higher animals, the mammals, there are scores of spe- 

 cies whose value is well known. We need merely to mention the 

 fur-bearing beasts, and our game animals to recall many species 

 to mind. Of these, one and all, we confess in truth that Ave have 

 sinned against them, and are reaping the results of our folly in a 

 threatened extermination of some of the most valuable. The 

 law makers are proverbially slow in acting where the fate of wild 

 animals is concerned, as is too well seen in the case of the fur seal, 

 the buffalo, and many kinds of wild game. Public opinion, how- 

 ever, is becoming stronger and with the help and backing of such 

 organizations as the League of American Sportsmen it is likely 

 to create gradually better conditions for all the animals that are 

 hunted. The passing of the fur animals of the north has given a 

 market value to such inferior pelts as those of cats, squirrels, rabbits 

 and rats. The breeding of the Arctic fox promises to become a very 

 productive industry in Alaska. As for leather, there seems to be 

 no sort of hide from which it is not prepared today, from the skin 

 of the eel to that of the elephant. 



The discussion of our topic would be incomplete without men- 

 tion of some of the blunders that man has made in his efforts to 

 make himself master of the situation. The greatest of these, is the 

 oft repeated sin of extermination. Something like a score of species 

 were exterminated by man's misdirected industry during the nine- 

 teenth century, and many other species were so hard pressed that 

 their disappearance from earth seems a question of a few years. 



Another mistake that man has repeated often with disastrous 

 results is the disturbance of the balance of nature by the intro- 



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