a 8 e FORKST ' AND V STREAM; [Ma^ ig, igeb. 
the man who should have no friends on the floor of this 
House or anywhere in the United States of America. 
He is the relentless enemy of all animal life. The States 
have awakened to the necessity of preserving what re- 
mains of bird life, with which nature so generously en- 
dowed our country. State laws of a rigorous character 
are enacted, and a public sentiment has grown up in 
favor of the enforcement of the statutes. 
But the facility of commerce in these days of rapid 
transit enables the violator of the State law to m-arket 
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 inexhaustible 
bird population. 
Mr. Cummings: I was a member of the House of 
Representatives thirteen years ago this spring. In April 
of that year the Capitol grounds and the parks of this 
city were filled with robins, bobolinks and other song- 
birds. The sward below the piazza of the House wing 
of the Capitol was dotted with songsters, the robins run- 
ning in every direction for worms and insects, and the 
trees alive with music. To-day it is a rarity to see a 
robin in the city of Washington. I heard two chirping 
on Capitol square early in the spring. Two weeks ago 
I saw a robin on the square pecked t9 death by English 
sparrows. When I reached him he was lying with droop- 
ing head and outstretched wings upon the grass in the 
park. From two to three hundred of these English spar- 
rows surrounded him, tormenting and attacking him. I 
took the bird into the house and gave him a drop of the 
best brandy. It revived him and he flew to the back of a 
chair. [Applause.] A moment afterward, however, I 
am sorry to say, his head began gradually to droop and he 
finally dropped from his perch to the carpet. Five minutes 
afterward he gasped for breath and died. On examination 
I found one eye bloodshot, and discovered that the bird 
was terribly lacerated under the wings. The bills of the 
sparrows had pierced him to the vitals. Now, Mr, Chair- 
man, if this bill will save the few robins and song birds 
now with us from the vicious attacks of these English 
sparrows, I am most heartily in favor of it [Applause.] 
Last summer I spent in the Susquehanna Valley. 
Twelve years before this I had summered in the same 
spot. The little yellow cherry bird was there then in pro- 
fusion. The ground chippy darted under the fences and 
had its nest in the tall grass. The yellowhammer was 
there undulating from tree to tree. The tapping of the 
woodpecker was heard in the basswood and other trees, 
and the twitter of the pha:be bird and the plaintive note 
of the pewit. The killdee and plover flew over the hills 
and the kingfisher and the little tip-up were seen upon the 
shores of the river. Bob White made himself heard in 
the meadows, and dainty woodcock flew out of the dells 
toward nightfall. All the varieties of birds familiar to us 
in boyhood days were there, including the catbird, the 
brown thrasher, and the kingbird. In that same region 
to-day there is not one of these song birds where twelve 
years ago there were fifty. 
My friend from Iowa [Mr. Lacey] says that the wild 
pigeon is a bird of the past. I have not seen one on the 
wing for six years. As the correspondent of a great 
American newspaper I visited Forest county, Pa., twenty 
years ago to describe the last pigeon roost this side of the; 
Mississippi. The birds were nesting in the forest, covering>; 
the trees for twenty square miles. Hundreds of Indians 
from the New York State reservations were there killing; 
the birds and gathering the squabs. Sportsmen were net- 
ting them by the thousand, and pot-hunters were sending 
great loads of them to market. When a boy in Wajsne; 
county. Pa., I have seen flocks of these pigeons stretchimg- 
across the sky from daylight to nightfall headed for- tfie 
west. I doubt whether to-day you could find one inti the 
whole of Wayne county. All have disappeared. The; 
last roost in the United States was destroyed in tiie In- 
dian Territory about twelve years ago. A wild gigeon 
is now more scarce. North, Sodth, East and West, than a- 
wild turkey. The prairie chickens have nearly dis- 
appeared, and the American wood duck is being, rapidly 
exterminated. If it is possible now to preserve- any oi 
these birds by legislation enacted by Congress, it is our 
duty to preserve them by placing such laws on the statute 
books. [Applause.] 
The most of the States have laws for the protection of 
their birds, but desire Congressional legislation to make: 
their laws effective. Last October I was in Florida.. 
Twenty-five years ago I summered and wintered there. 
I spent years on the east coast. The sky was filled witht 
immense flocks of wood ibis, gannets, curlews of all. 
colors, oyster birds, chuck- will' s-widows, sheerwaters and'. 
sandpipers. The man-of-war hawk sailed in the upper 
sky, and long lines of pelicans trailed over the beach.. 
There were immense flocks of egrets and snowy herons,, 
besides the great blue and Louisiana herons and the' 
roseate spoonbill curlew, now the rarest and the most^ 
beautiful bird in America. The scream of the parakeet 
was heard at every turn, and goldfinches, mockingbirds, 
limpkins, nonpareils and myriads of songsters were seeni 
everywhere. To-day the parakeet has almost entirely 
disappeared, the roseate spoonbill is rarely seen, and even i 
the common sea gull is a prey to the gunner, ^ The State 
is doing its best now to protect them. A man who would 
kill a roseate spoonbill curlew to-day is liable to a fine: 
of $250. 
This slaughter has been made to gratify the vanity of 
the female sex. Hats and bonnets have been decorated- 
with their snowy plumes,, and the slaughter still continues- 
and will continue until some Federal law, mortised in with 
State laws, prevents it Our agricultural newspapers are 
filled with articles showing that this wanton destruction: 
of the birds is working great injury to the agricultural 
community. It has become a matter of serious concern 
to the farmer. The curculio and other destructive insects- 
have their sweet will in his orchard, and all insects detri- 
mental to plant life are increasing in number because of" 
this cruel, wanton and vicious destruction of bird life. 
[Applause.] It does seem to me, Mr. Chairman, that it*: 
should be stopped, promptly and forever. 
I have recently seen an advertisement in a Philadelphiai 
newspaper advertising proposals for the skins of 30000/ 
birds. Contracts have been made with men in the littler- 
State of Delaware to procure these skins. If .these con- 
tracts are carried out I venture to say that Delaware,: 
peaches will be scarcer than ever during the coming sea- 
son. Years ago Delaware peaches were in every American 
market at low prices. Year by year they have bcome more 
scarce, until last summer it was almost impossible in the 
New York market to buy a single basket of the fruit 
One cause for the dearth was the destruction of the insect- 
feeding birds of that State. 
Mr. Chairman, I pay taxes on about seven acres of 
land. It was formerly covered with birds of various 
species. Nothing that can fly has been seen on it for 
the last two years except English sparrows. They are as 
thick as flies in a butcher shop and far more destructive 
and annoying. They have killed or driven away every 
American bird. I understand that the bill of my friend 
from Iowa affords protection from this nuisance. This 
is gratifying to every lover of American birds. I shall 
vote for the bill as it stands; but if it contained a pro- 
vision meting out punishment to any hunter who fails to 
kill an English sparrow on sight I would vote for his 
bill with greater alacrity. [Applause.] 
Mr. Gaines: Will the gentleman from Iowa allow me 
to ask him a question? Are not the birds, I would ask 
my friend from Iowa, being exterminated largely by the 
prize shooters? 
Mr. Lacey: I think not to any considerable extent.. 
These men who do prize shooting are, as a rule, in the 
liabit of using clay pigeons. The birds Ave are trying tO' 
protect are rarely used for such purposes. Domestic 
pigeons are used for that purpose, and also clay or glass 
balls. 
Mr. Robinson, of Indiana: I desire to say to the gen- 
tleman from Iowa, while I have not read the bill very 
carefullj', that I think it comes very close to producing 
a conflict between the States, over their jurisdiction in 
these m.atters, and the Federal Government. I ask the 
gentlemtan if that is not true? 
Mr. L-acey: Not at all. 
Mr. liobinson, of Indiana: I should like to have an 
explanation of that to see how the gentleman's ingenuity 
has gotten around that difficulty. 
Mr. Lacey: There is no difficulty whatever. The 
authority of the National Government begins where the 
State authority ends. The bill carefully avoids all con- 
flicts of this character. It begins when animals or birds 
are lo aded upon the cars to be shipped to a point outside of 
the State. When they are thus transported, for in- 
stance, from a point in Indiana to Chicago or Cincin- 
nati, the local game wardens, endeavoring to protect the 
birds of your State, find themselves powerless, because 
the birds are not seen of men after they are once packed 
until they turn up in the markets of one of the cities. 
The State law is thus nullified. This provision enables 
the persons enforcing the State law to show, first, that 
the birds were killed in violation of the State law; second, 
that they have been shipped by interstate commerce to 
another State. Then the national law comes in and for- 
bids the shipment, and in this manner the State law is 
supplemented. Thus it is made effective at the very point 
where, by reason of the limited area of the State, the 
State law to-day is inoperative and ineft'ective. 
Mr. Robinson, of Indiana: I hope the gentleman has 
secured what he desires, but it is a very difficult proposi- 
tion, and I think it is very doubtful whether he has done 
so. 
Mr. Lacey: I think that has been properly covered. I 
should like to make one more suggestion in line with 
what my friend from New York [Mr. Cummings] has 
said: 
I love people who love birds. The man or the woman 
who does not love birds ought to be classed with the per- 
son who has no love for music — "fit only for treason, 
strategem and spoils." I would love to have a solo 
singer in every bush and a choir of birds in every tree 
lop. At my own home I have set out Russian mulberries 
for the birds alone. The Russian mulberry begins to 
ripen while the blossoms are still coming out, and for 
three months there are blossoms and black fruit upon 
the same tree. If you want to be popular 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 man who cultivates the birds will 
have the birds take care of him. They will care for his 
farm. They will destroy the insect pests, and the man 
who protects them will be vsuccessful wherever he may 
farm in the United States of America. 
Mr. Shackleford: What about the birds that pick the 
cherries? 
Mr. Lacey: Every bird that eats a cherry earns ten 
cherries before he eats one. 
Mr. Clark, of Missouri: Have you any way of keeping 
them from from eating cherries? 
Mr. Lacey: No one should ever begrudge a cherry to a 
woodpecker or a robin. He has made the cherry possible 
before he takes it. He has done more toward its fruition 
than the man who set out the tree, because he has pro- 
tected it from the pests that destroy it. 
Mr. CwaaiMings: Will the gentlemen inform us in a 
iew words what birds this bill does not protect? 
Mr. Lacey: It protects only those birds that are pro- 
;tected by local laws. If the State of New York protects 
a ceittain kind of birds, interstate commerce in the dead 
iboiies of those birds is forbidden, so that nothing is 
■tal-fcen from the powers of the State. The sound judgment 
lof the Legislatures of the States really controls this mat- 
Iter after all, and this bill merely builds upon the founda- 
■tion that is first laid by the State Legislature. 
Mr. Gaines: Why do you confine it to States that pro- 
hibit the killing of robins, for instance? Could not this 
apply just as well between States that do not prohibit 
their killing as between States that do? 
Mr. Lacey: In order to do that it would become neces- 
sary to enact a national game law, which, I think, would 
be unconstitutional. By limiting it to the prohibition of 
interstate commerce in those things which the State pro- 
hibits, then we have clear ground, and there is no trouble 
on the subject. Every State in the Union is to-day legis- 
lating as well as it can to perfect the general purpose had 
in view by this bill. I will read my amendment. I pro- 
pose in lieu of section 5 the following : 
Sec. 5. That all dead bodies, or parts thereof, of any foreign 
: game animals, or game or song birds, the importation of which is 
prohibited, or the dead bodies, or parts thereof, of any wild game 
: animals, or game or song- birds, transported into any State or Ter- 
ritory, or remaining therein for use, consumption, sale or storage 
th'ferein, sKairupon arrival in such State or Territory b^ subject 
to the operation and efifect of the laws of such State or Territory 
enacted in the exercise of its police powers to the aame extent 
and in the same manner as though such animals or birds had been 
produced in such State or Territory, and shall not be exempt 
therefrom by reason of being introduced therein in original pack- 
iages or othejwise. This act shall not prevent the importation, 
transportation or sale cf birds or bird plumage manufactured from 
the feathers of barnyard fowl. 
Now, in a word, let me explain that in the city of 
New York and in the State of New York, where they 
have rigid laws, market men import grouse from Scot- 
land, hang up the grouse out in front of the store, and 
while apparently selling Scotch game, they are in fact 
selling grouse killed in the Adirondacks or in the State 
of New York; but they use these foreign birds as a 
"fence," just as in some localities some dealers use their 
business as a "fence." Some merchants shelter them- 
selves behind a legitimate business in order to transact 
an illegal business. We have rigid State laws in every 
State prohibiting the receiving of stolen goods. Now, in 
New York they tell me that concealed behind a Scotch 
deer or perhaps Scotch birds they are selling native birds. 
The only way to prevent them from uoing so is to pro- 
hibit the selling of foreign birds. When birds are shipped 
into a State at a time when the State statutes prohibit 
them from being killed and a man is arrested, he says,. 
"They were shipped under interstate commerce, and 
you cannot interfere with me." 
This proposed section is copied from the Wilson origi- 
nal-package act, which has stood the test of judicial criti- 
cism. It will enable the State of New York to treat Scotch 
game or foreign game precisely as it would its own when it 
arrives in the State, and thus protect against the foreign 
game being used as a screen to sell the local game. 
Mr. Adamson : I want to ask you a question. It relates "to 
the sale o( game animals and birds transported into any 
State or Territory, and remaining there for use, con- 
sumption, sale or storage therein." I presume that has 
application, for instance, to birds or game killed in Vir- 
ginia and shipped into Mai'yland or other States under 
interstate commerce. 
Mr. Lacey: Yes. 
Mr. Adamson: Now, as I understand your amend- 
ment, it would be a violation of the law to ship and sell 
these birds or animals in another State, t.lthough it was 
lawful to kill them and sell them at the time they were 
killed. 
Mr. Lacey: Certainly, as to the shipment. It will 
simply do this: Suppose the closed season in Virginia 
commences on Dec. i, and the closed season in Georgia 
is Oct. i. Now, it will be lawful to ship animals and 
birds from Virginia into the District of Columbia and 
Baltimore longer than it would be from Georgia, because 
the closed season is different; and the man that receives 
and handles them must know that he is dealing in some- 
thing that has not been killed in violation of the law of the 
State from which the game comes. The State law would 
protect the State of Georgia from the destruction of the 
birds in Georgia, in which every Georgian is interested, 
when they are killed in violation of laws of your State. 
This bill will prevent the evasion of the State law by the 
shipment of the game for sale in another State. 
Mr. Adamson: If you will permit me, you remem- 
ber we had some colloquy about this in committee when 
your bill was there. I call your attena^n to the proviso 
m the third section: 
Provided, That nothing herein shall prevent the transportation 
of any dead birds or animals killed during the season when the 
same may be lawfully captured, and the export of which is not 
prohibited by law in the State, Territory or District in which the 
.same are killed. 
I believe that would be valid and the other proviso itl 
section 9 invalid. 
Now, do you think that so long as it is legal in one 
State to kill game or birds and to use them there, the 
provision in your amendment contradictory to this pro- 
viso which I have read would be valid, authorizing any 
other State or Territory of the United States to regard 
as contraband these animals and these birds legally 
killed and shipped? 
Mr. Lacey: I do not think that the gentleman covers 
the point. Now, the question arises under the original- 
package act. The liquor is shipped from Kentucky to 
Georgia, is properly loaded on the cars in Kentucky, and 
on arriving in Georgia under the interstate commerce 
it has a right to go into a dry county in Georgia, not- 
withstanding the most strenuous laws on the subject. 
Congress passed a law that when those liquors arrive, 
when the transit has terminated, then the laws of Georgia 
may operate, and you may forbid the sale of liquor 
there; and the same provision is now proposed with refer- 
ence to game and wild birds. The Georgia law protects 
the birds of Georgia from being sold in Georgia, but by 
bringing in birds from other States they could evade 
the local laws. By the operations of this bill you will 
control the sale of game in Georgia independent of the 
original-package decisions. 
Mr. Adamson: Still, if you think it will be valid, do 
you think it would be wise to provide that game and 
birds legally killed in a State where they exist cannot be 
sold in any other State or Territory? 
Mr. Lacey: That is left wholly with the States. This 
bill does not attempt to interfere; it leaves it so that the 
State may do so if the State thinks best. Suppose at 
Atlanta they w-ant to prevent the sale of quail between 
Oct. I and Feb. i, or after Feb. i and down to October. 
Now, you find by shipping Florida or Virginia quail 
at the same time your local laws are nullified, because 
they cannot distinguish between them. In order to pro- 
tect your own birds, you say no such birds killed any--i 
where shall be sold within that period. This bill does 
not attempt to do more than to enable your State to* 
do this, notwithstanding the original-package decisions^ 
which have in the city of New York been utilized to de- ' 
sfroy the State law. 
In New York they have precisely such a State law as. 
I suggest; they have attempted to prevent the sale of all 
wild birds out of certain seasons, although they were 
killed lawfully in the States or foreign countries from 
which they came, and the courts -have held that as they 
came in under interstate commerce, and as Congress has ' 
not passed any original-package law applying to game, ' 
the laws are inoperative, and it is at their request that ' 
this prohibition is inserted in the bill. 
Mr. Adamson: I understand your entire reason for 
being willing to contradict the proviso in section 3 an4 
