LET US SA VE THE BIRDS. 



35 



and a public sentiment has grown up in 

 favor of the enforcement of the statutes. 



But the facility of commerce in these 

 davs of rapid transit enables the violator 

 of the State law to market the product of 

 his crime at a distance, and thus defy the 

 laws of his own Commonwealth. This bill 

 will supply the present defect in the law, 

 and a halt can be called upon the ruthless 

 destruction and exportation of the small 

 remains of our once apparently inexhaus- 

 tible bird population. 



Seton Thompson tells us that no wild 

 bird or wfld animal ever dies of old age. 

 Their lives, sooner or later, always have a 

 tragic end. When a wild' animal makes a 

 mistake the penalty is death. 



The gulls, the scavengers of our bays 

 and harbors, are now being killed for use 

 as ornaments. 



The plumes of the egret are especially 

 sought after; and as their plumage is at its 

 best when nesting the mother bird is shot 

 while rearing its young, and the orphan 

 family is destroyed that the mother's 

 plumes may decorate the head gear of hu- 

 manity. 



There is one feature of bird protection, 

 with which this bill does not pretend to 

 deal. 



The plumage me hant has held out in- 

 ducements to hunters which have well- 

 nigh exterminated some of the most 

 beautiful creatures in the world. 



In a single sale in London, in 1898, 116,- 

 490 skins of humming birds and 228,289 

 bundles of Indian parrots were sold for 

 decorative purposes. In that sale over 

 500,000 bird skins were disposed of. 



It is a pitiful thing to contemplate the 

 slaughter of such a multitude of these 

 beauties for the gratification of human 

 vanity. Many people are deeply interested 

 in the proposition to forbid the importa- 

 tion of the plumage of foreign birds, but 

 that would involve the attempt to reform 

 the world before purifying ourselves. 



We should cast the beam out of our own 

 eye first. Let us take care of our own 

 birds and game before attempting to go into 

 the fields and forests of other lands. 



By taking this course we will set an ex- 

 ample to other countries and the good 

 work of bird and game protection in 

 America may serve as a model. 



We have given an awful exhibition of 

 slaughter and destruction, which may serve 



'as a warning to all mankind. Let us now 

 give an example of wise conservation of 

 what remains of the gifts of nature. 



It is late. It is too late as to the wild 

 pigeon. The buffalo is almost a thing of 

 the past, but there still remain much to 

 preserve, and we must act earnestly if we 

 would accomplish good results. 



Mr. Chairman, to the last section of this 

 bill, which was designed to obviate the ef- 

 fect 01 the "original package" law in pro- 

 tecting the pot hunter, I have agreed to 

 offer an amendment, putting it in such a 

 form as I think will remove the only op- 

 position that this bill has really encoun- 

 tered on the floor of the House. I will 

 offer the amendment at the proper time as 

 a substitute for section 5. 



I love the people who love birds. The 

 man or the woman who does not love 

 birds ought to be classed with the person 

 who has no 1 ;ve for music — fit only for 

 "treason, stratagem and spoils." I would 

 love to have a solo singer in every bush 

 and a choir of birds in every tree top. At 

 my own home I have set out Russian mul- 

 berries for the birds alone. The Russian 

 muioerry begins to ripen whiL the blos- 

 soms are still coming out, and for three 

 months there are blossoms and black fruit 

 on the same tree. If you \wnt to s e popu- 

 lar with the birds of your community, set 

 out some of these mulberries, and they will 

 come from every quarter to the place 

 where these trees are. The ma" who cul- 

 tivates the birds will have the birds take 

 care of him. They will care for 1 "i farm. 

 They will destroy the insect pests, and the 

 man who protects them will be successful 

 wherever he may farm in the United States 

 of America. 



Mr. Shackleford. What about th^ birds 

 that pick the cherries? . . 



Mr. Lacey. Every bird that eats a 

 cherry earns 10 cherries before he eats 

 one. 



Mr. Clark, of Missouri. Have you any 

 way of keeping them from eating the cher- 

 ries? 



Mr. Lacey. No one should ever be- 

 grudge a cherry to a woodpecker or a 

 robin. He has made the cherry possible 

 before he takes it. He has done more 

 towaru its fruition than the man who srt 

 out the tree, because he has protected ii 

 from the pests that destroy it. 



Life is real, life is earnest 

 From the start until the end; 



And with the demise of a doctor 

 The undertaker plants a friend. 



—Chicago News, 



