22 
GENERALIA 
ment of species, that a single birdcatching apparatus (roccolo) 
has in 20 years cost 135,485 small birds their lives. These 
numbers are controllable; those which evade control, are still 
greater. These remarks and statistics apply only to birds 
meant for consumption and leave out of account altogether 
those hecatombs which the world of fashion demands. To 
this category belong the 400,000 pairs of lark-wings supplied 
by Finland to one single fashionable shop in Paris. 
These are the details which we thought fit to write by 
way of introduction, for the better displaying the importance 
of the bird-question. The fact that, in the course of the 
discussion, no mention has been made of the humanitarian 
point of view is a consequence of the nature of the case; 
for where great material interests of mankind are involved 
and our point may be proved, to the exclusion of sentimen- 
tality, by the force of circumstances, the latter must be 
employed. 
So we must place the interests of universal agriculture, 
on which man's subsistence depends, face to face with the 
misinterpretations of birds and their work from the point of 
view of material interest and with that really senseless exter- 
mination in which man indulges. 
If this vast material interest is sufficient to restrict the 
senseless extermination of birds, justice has been done to 
the world of sentiment and to humanitarianism, to foster 
which is our bounden duty and task, not only as far as birds 
are concerned but in every sphere. 
Both the material and the sentimental side of the question 
has been done justice to by the decrees of the two Hun- 
garian ministers. 
The most important feature of the case however, is that the 
cause of bird-protection has more need than any other of 
international cooperation to bring it to a successful issue. 
