February 26, 1886. J 



SCIENCE. 



195 



affords them their real reward. The middle-men, 

 — the skinners and manufacturers, — and an oc- 

 casional professional gunner, make most of the 

 profit, which must be more or less considerable to 

 induce them to run the gauntlet of public opinion 

 and the occasional risks of prosecution in their 

 illegal enterprises. The milliner shares, of course, 

 in the profits of the trade in such supplies ; but, if 

 birds were not used to such an extent, other and 

 more fitting decorations would be adopted in their 

 place, and their business would not suffer. 



Respecting the latter inquiries, birds may be 

 said to have a practical value of high importance 

 and an aesthetic value not easily overestimated. 

 Birds in general are the friends of man, and it is 

 doubtful whether a single species can be named 

 which is not more beneficial than harmful. The 

 great mass of our smaller birds, numbering hun- 

 dreds of species, are the natural checks upon the 

 undue multiplication of insect-pests. Many of 

 them rarely make use of other than insect-food, 

 while all, as shown by scientific investigations 

 already made, depend largely or wholly, during 

 considerable periods of the year, upon an insect- 

 diet. Even the ill-reputed hawks and owls prey 

 upon field-mice, grasshoppers, and other noxious 

 insects or vermin, some never molesting the 

 farmers poultry, and others only exceptionally. 

 In the present general summary of the subject, it 

 may be sufficient to say, that, while the beneficial 

 qualities of birds vary widely with the species, 

 none can be set down as proven to be unmiti- 

 gatedly injurious. With the decrease of birds at 

 any point is noted an increase of insects, especially 

 of kinds injurious to agriculture. The relation of 

 birds to agriculture has been studied as yet but 

 imperfectly : but results could be cited which 

 would go far to substantiate the above statement 

 of their general utility. It is a matter for con- 

 gratulation, that the investigation of the subject 

 has now been systematically entered upon by the 

 department of agriculture at Washington, under 

 the supervision of experts especially fitted for the 

 work. 



Birds, considered aesthetically, are among the 

 most graceful in movement and form, and the 

 most beautiful and attractive in coloration, of 

 nature's many gifts to man. Add to this their 

 vivacity, their melodious voices and unceasing 

 activity, — charms shared in only small degree by 

 any other forms of life, — and can we well say that 

 we are prepared to see them exterminated in behalf 

 of fashion, or to gratify a depraved taste ? Says a 

 recent writer, " A garden without flowers, child- 

 hood without laughter, an orchard without blos- 

 soms, a sky without color, roses without perfume, 

 are the analogues of a country without song-birds. 



And the United States are going straight and swift 

 into that desert condition." 



Indeed, as previously noted, there is already an 

 encouraging recognition of that fact. Here and 

 there bird-protective associations are being formed, 

 and more care is taken to secure proper bird-pro- 

 tective legislation ; but the public at large is still 

 too apathetic, or too ignorant of the real state of 

 the case, to insist upon, and support by proper 

 public sentiment, the enforcement of legislative 

 acts already on our statute-books. The American 

 ornithologists' union has moved in the matter by 

 the appointment of a large and active committee 

 on bird-protection, which is at present bending its 

 energies toward the diffusion of information among 

 the people, in the hope of awakening a healthy sen- 

 timent on the subject, and is also working to secure 

 not only more effective and intelligent legislation, 

 but the proper enforcement of the laws enacted 

 in behalf of birds. This, too, notwithstanding a 

 recent writer in a popular magazine characterized 

 ornithologists as being among the worst enemies 

 birds have, and to whose egg-collecting and bird- 

 stuffing propensities was principally attributed the 

 woful decrease of our song-birds ! 



In England the same rage for hat decoration 

 with dead birds has gone so far that anti-plumage- 

 wearing societies have already been established by 

 the more intelligent women of that country ; and it 

 has already been suggested, apparently independ- 

 ently* of any similar action abroad, by ladies 

 themselves, that the women of this country throw 

 their influence in a similar way against the bar- 

 barous custom of using birds for personal decora- 

 tions. Much could doubtless be done in behalf of 

 the birds in this way ; for, once let it come to 

 be considered vulgar and in ' bad form ' to thus 

 decorate one's person, and the power of fashion 

 would be a mighty weapon in defence of the 

 birds. 



Of all the means that may be devised for check- 

 ing the present wholesale bird-slaughter, the 

 awakening of a proper public sentiment cannot 

 fail of being the most powerful. Without this, 

 all other means would prove, to a great degree, 

 ineffectual. Laws, however good, cannot be 

 enforced unless backed by public opinion. To 

 arouse this, it seems only necessary to enlighten 

 the community respecting the nature, the enor- 

 mity, and the leading cause of this great evil. 

 The following articles are intended to amplify 

 and elaborate points merely hinted at in this 

 general statement — to give a bill of particulars 

 for certain special localities, and of certain phases, 

 of this great slaughter of the innocents, and to 

 show the methods adopted by some of the miscre- 

 ants engaged in it. J. A. Allen. 



