AMOUITCEIvIEII T; Jcid. -.z.ov for our visit v./itli Uncle Sam's Naturalists. The Natural- 

 ists have a livel;?- de'oate for us today. The;^ are going to let folks here and 

 there throughout the country argue for and against liavts, and owls, and jays, and 

 Sparrows, and so'.ne of o"ar other common birds, 



— o — 



After you hear a few of the arguments for and against some of our common 

 "birds, you begin to wish for the sagacity of Solomon. 



At least, th-^.t's the opinion of ¥. 1. McAtee of the U. S. Biological Survey. 



HcAtee, as chief of the food habits research division, hears the very same 

 bird both condemned and praised. Some folks claim, "The only good hawk is a dead 

 hawk." But somebody else immediately hops up to retort, "Hawks are very valuable 

 birds." — And there you are 



I can think of no better way to show jovl how folks differ in their notions 

 about birds than to quote you a few of the letters that stream across McAtee' s 

 desk. 



As you might, ^'uess, much of the debate centers arou:id hawks and owls. 



An Ohio architect writes: "T7e have a few domesticated pigeons in a dove-cote 

 near ovx residence. .. .T7e have been greatly troubled by hawks swooping down and 

 killing them off. Can you tell us any way in which we couLd successfully combat 

 the hawks?" 



But, when city authorities tried to shoot a duck h^wk that had been preying 

 on pigeons, a Detroit bird man protested: "The pigeoiis have increased until the 

 down-town area is little uioro t'lan a pigeon roost. As for myself, I hope we have 

 bigger and better hawks, as long as they continue to operate here." 



Again, on the other side of the havAc question, a Texas farmer writes, "I am 

 very badly in need of a reliable remedy to be used in exterminating hawks." 



But a woman in California comes back with the statement, "I would like to see 

 falconry (in oth^^r wrds the art of training hawks to pursue other birds) revived 

 to control trouble ^ith small birds in orchards. The small birds are bad here." 



In another letter we find an Arkansas manufacturer sure that "Unless a state- 

 wide campaign is launched against .lawks it will be impossible to raise domesticated 

 fowl." 



A man in Quebec writes in the hawk's defense and argues (and again I quote), 

 "The writer has kept in close touch with hawks during the past twenty years and 

 thinks these wild and interesting birds should be better protected." 



