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CONSERVATION AND ITS LESSONS 



Nesting boxes will attract 

 and protect birds. 



larly rats are very destructive of eggs and young birds. Small 

 boys, with air guns, and foreigners who kill for food, are responsible 

 for the death of many birds. But according to Forbush, the house 

 cat is the worst enemy of our feathered friends. He estimates 

 from many observations that the average pet cat kills at least 

 50 birds a year. Assuming that the cat kills only ten birds a year, 

 and that there is one cat to each farm in Massachusetts, there 

 would be 700,000 birds annually killed by 

 cats in that state. Think of what this 

 means for the entire United States ! 



Home Conservation Methods. — Nesting 

 boxes can be easily made and are a great 

 asset for a home. Birds are delightful as 

 well as useful neighbors. Wrens are often 

 attracted with boxes having small holes 

 not larger than one and one eighth inches in 

 diameter. Place the boxes so that cats can- 

 not get access to them. During the winter 

 birds may frequently be preserved by feed- 

 ing. Suet baskets and nuts put on shelves placed in trees and 

 inaccessible to cats are the best means. Bird baths also are means 

 of attracting birds. 



Bird Migrations in Relation to Conservation. — It has long 

 been known that certain birds breed in the far north and spend 

 the winter in the tropics. The golden plover is the most notable 

 example, for it nests in the Arctic and winters in southern South 

 America, making a yearly round trip of more than 16,000 miles. 

 Wild ducks and geese are examples of game birds that make these 

 pilgrimages each year. The bobolink migrates from the northern 

 part of our country to a tropical part of South America, It is 

 largely due to this migratory instinct that many of our birds have 

 been subject to slaughter by hunters. Many states have laws 

 which allow the killing of large ''bags " of ducks and other game 

 birds and do not sufficiently protect migrating birds. It has been 

 estimated that 5,000,000 hunters go out every season for birds or 

 other animals. Thanks to the treaty of 1916 with Great Britain, 

 more than 500 kinds of migrating birds are protected in this country 

 and Canada from capture, killing, or sale. All over this country, 



