BIRD LEGISLATION. 
By Hon. George B. Sennett, Erie^ Pa. 
[An address at the annual meeting.] 
I have great pleasure in being able to address an intelligent body 
of men who represent the agricultural interests of our great Common- 
wealth. I believe with Buckle, that no law can be of lasting benefit 
unless it first come from the people themselves as a recognized want 
of that people; that no legislator was ever statesman enough to pass 
a law worth anything in advance of the wants of the people whom 
the law was intended to benefit. Many law-making legislatures have 
occupied themselves with the making of many laws to such j>drpose, 
that among the immense number of existing laws the good ones can 
with difficulty be separated from the bad, and in the ensuing confusion 
few are enforced. You, whose interests are so intimately connected 
with the birds, should know a great deal about them and their relation 
to other forms of natural life. As dependents upon nature for the re- 
turns for your labor and seed, you realize continually that nature’s laws 
and harmony must not be interfered with, or defeat and disaster will 
follow. You know that the vegetation you produce is likewise food for 
certain forms of animal life, and that man must fight continually to^ 
successfully hold his own against the depredations of this rival. Yet, in 
spite of this continual struggle between men and animals and between 
the lower forms of animal life to procure food to sustain thi^t life, 
there is a general harmony between the vegetable and the animal world 
which can only be recklessly interfered with at the expense of both. 
We know that we cannot well do without insects, nor without birds; 
yet there are good insects and bad insects, and there are good birds and 
bad birds. The agriculturist must consider as his friend that bird 
! which feeds wholly or chiefly upon his enemy, the insects; but that 
I bird which feeds on his grain and fruit, leaving the insects compara- 
tively undisturbed (except for its young), is certainly a bad bird for 
I the farmer. But how is the farmer to know a good insect from a bad 
one or a good bird from a bad one? It is only when great waves of a 
certain class of insects come sweeping down almost without warning 
and utterly destroy a growing crop, that we find out his race is a bad 
one and must be outlawed. It is only when great swarms of birds 
settle down upon our ripening grain, that we know we cannot live on 
friendly terms with his species. It is when we suffer a great onslaught 
of these birds or insects that we know the harmony of nature has 
been somewhere or somehow seriously disturbed. Aside from these 
pronounced waves of destruction, there are constantly at work for 
good or evil, birds in greater or less number, whose true character it 
is very difficult for the grower to determine. For example : In the 
early morning, as the farmer seeks to destroy the worm he finds in 
I close proximity to the blade of corn it has just cut off, he sees a few 
crows in the same field, all busy feeding on something. Are those 
I crows eating corn or cut-worm, or both? As the crow will not come 
to us and tell us, or disgorge into our hands, the only way to be sure 
of his diet is to examine the contents of his stomach. 
We have just arrived at that point where we must be certain of our 
bird before we praise or condemn. W e are now only heginning to 
work intelligently and thoroughly to find out our friends and our 
