FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
123 
dered by such predaceous birds as feed 
on mice, rabbits and other injurious ro¬ 
dents. In some countries, as in Austra¬ 
lia, these rodents inflict almost incalcul¬ 
able damage upon agriculture, and every¬ 
where they are harmful to the nursery, 
the orchard and the field. It is to the keen 
eye, the swift, strong wing and the sharp 
and cruel beak of hawk and owl that we 
must chiefly look for protection against 
these gnawing nuisances. There are in 
the United States above seventy species 
of these birds, and they all have excellent 
appetites. Now and then no doubt they 
snatch a chicken from the barn yard; no 
doubt they destroy numbers of our 
smaller and useful birds; but we know 
that their chief food is not these. Here 
is one report among many, made by the 
experts: “In the stomachs of forty-five 
rough-legged hawks (Archibuteo lago- 
pus sancti-johannis), taken in several dif¬ 
ferent states, were found 128 harmful 
rodents, one weasel, one schew and sev¬ 
enty insects. The rodents (besides nine¬ 
teen which could not be determined spe¬ 
cifically from the remains) consisted of 
one gopher (salamander), two rabbits, 
four house mice, four white-footed mice, 
and ninety-eight meadow mice. No traces 
of birds or poultry were found in any of 
the forty-five stomachs.’* I once saw a 
shrike drive his beak into the skull of a 
sparrow; this was a single instance, but 
how many hundreds of noxious animals 
and insects have we all seen impaled on 
orange thorns by these bloody butchers 
of vermin? Yet I still recall vividly the 
sense of noble achievement I felt, as a 
boy, when I succeeded in kiliing a hawk 
or an owl; I ought to have been spanked, 
but there have been state legislatures fool¬ 
ish enough to offer bounties for the de¬ 
struction of these good friends of the 
farmer. 
This, then, is the service which the 
birds render to us farmers and fruit 
growers—they are incessantly at work 
decimating the army of noxious weeds, 
insects and vermin, which is ever swarm¬ 
ing across our fields—creeping, jumping, 
burrowing, flying—and which except for 
the protection afforded by the birds would 
devour all our substance. 
It is computed by some experts that 
the number of these friendly birds, tak¬ 
ing the whole country together, has been 
diminished in recent years by some 50 
per cent.; be this as it may, I think that 
all observers will agree that they are not 
so numerous as they formerly were, or 
as they ought to be. 
I appeal to you on behalf of our feath¬ 
ered friends. Seven things you can do 
to protect those we have and to increase 
their number—you can refrain from 
shooting or trapping them, or allowing 
them to be shot or trapped on your prem¬ 
ises ; you can provide for them safe breed¬ 
ing places and an occasional lunch about 
your door; you can prevent your boys and 
others from destroying or robbing their 
nests; you can see that the children are 
properly instructed in home and school 
concerning this matter; you can assist in 
preventing the passage of unwise game 
and bird laws, and in securing the passage 
of such as are good and wholesome; you 
can help provide for the appointment of 
a suitable number of suitable persons as 
wardens, state and county, and, lastly, 
you can encourage the Florida Audubon 
Society, of which it is my privilege to be 
a vice president, in its crusade for bird 
protection, by becoming members or by 
contributing to its treasury. 
