Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. 



33 



bird enemies during a season, the sequence 

 must be obvious. Now we have not to 

 find this out for ourselves. It is only 

 necessary to turn to England, where the 

 game laws, even now, are almost as feudal 

 as they were, and where the idea of protec- 

 tion of bird or mammal that prejs in game 

 would be vigorous!}^ opposed ; and we find 

 that the practical extermination of the Rap- 

 tores has allowed the rats and the mice 

 to increase to such an alarming extent as 

 to compel the legislature to face the out- 

 look and declare that the agricultural inter- 

 ests of the country are greater than those of 

 the game preserves; and now the hawks 

 and owls are rigidly protected under heavy 

 penalty. 



Incidentally I may state that as long ago 

 as 1890 I had seen over one hundred 

 rats killed while threshing one stack of 

 wheat and fully as many escaped to 

 propagate their kind. This too, is not 

 at all an out-of-the-wav statement. Almost 

 any farmers would bear me up on their 

 own experience. 



Australia, and New Zealand also, are 

 importing birds of prey, and stoats and 

 weasels at immense expense in the hope of 

 restoring the balance somewhat that the in- 

 troduction of noxious rodents bad upset. 



Neither must we lose sight of the fact 

 that besides our indigenous rodents, 

 especially the field vole, the gopher, and to 

 an extent the chipm\jnk, the Hanoverian 

 rat has come to stay. Time was when 

 England knew them not; now they are 

 a scourge. The same will happen here 

 if we are not careful, and it will take 

 more than the domestic cat to keep them 

 down when they once get the upperhand. 



Now in our legislative assemblies nat- 

 ural history is not always reduced to a 

 science. A member may be a very good 

 lawyer but a very indifferent orinthologist ; 

 and have a vague idea as to the difference 

 between a ''hawk and a hernshaw." 



You all know ; but it is not so with 

 the farmers generally, neither is the 

 relative value of these birds made suf- 

 ficiently clear in our schools to the rising 

 generation of young agriculturists. It 

 appears to me that the M. O. 0. could 

 do much in this direction by detailing some 



of their members in each district to set 

 the stone rolling. 



There is an old and somewhat coarse ad- 

 age which has it, that if you would get 

 most readily to an Englishman's heart, 

 it should be through his stomach. I 

 have also heard it whispered, that the 

 nearest way to the heart of the American is 

 through his pocket. Probably there is a 

 certain amount of truth in both. The 

 point is that if we can persuade the 

 young farmers that the hawks and owls are 

 really their friends, even if they take toll 

 occasionally, that there are "dollars in it," 

 it will do more towards protecting the birds 

 than any state enactment. Take tlie 

 matter of the skunk, for instance, in the 

 hop raising districts ; let any one kill one 

 and see the result. 



Sooner or later the legislature will see 

 the matter in its true asnect, but there 

 would be some credit to the M. O. C. 

 if we took the initiative. 



Through the courtesy of the Union 

 Metallic Cartridge Co. I am able to see at 

 a glance an abstract of the laws pertainino^ 

 to o^ame and birds in everv state and 

 territory in the Union. In two states only, 

 is any member of the Raptores protected. 

 In all others they are omitted from the list 

 of favored birds or else specified as needing 

 destruction. In Ohio the eagle is pro- 

 tected ; it does not sav which, so it 

 must mean all. In Michig'an the Bald 

 Eagle. This is all right and as it should 

 be. Long may he fly. Notwithstanding 

 the same, his private character does not 

 compare favorably with that of the Cir- 

 cus^ which bird, by the way, should 

 have rigid state protection throughout 

 the Union on its merits--it and the 

 buzzards. I fear the eagle is a sad rogue 

 with a very vague idea of the law of 

 ''meum and tuum." 



It is no use saying that there will always 

 be plenty of hawks and owls. Remem- 

 ber the Passenger Pigeon, where are its 

 millions now? The Bufialo — there is no 

 sentiment in this case. What has hap- 

 pened in other countries will come to 

 pass here if proper precautions are not 

 taken ere it is too late. 



