28 
BY TilE WAYSIDE 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
Published on the tenth of each month ex- 
cept July and August. 
The official organ of the Wisconsin Audu¬ 
bon Society. 
t itty vents per year _ Single copies 5 cents 
Contributions to By the Wayside are 
invited from all lovers of Nature and 
friends of the birds. All communications 
should be sent to Roland E .Kremers, 1720 
\ ilas St., Madison, Wis. 
Roland E. Kremers, Editor, 1720 
Vilas St., Madison, Wis. 
Dr. Victor Kutchin, Secretary-Treas¬ 
urer, Green Lake, Wis. 
The same old story—we need more 
members. 
The editor of By the Wayside is de¬ 
sirous of collecting all available infor¬ 
mation on the occurrence, distribution, 
and habits of the Bed-headed Wood¬ 
pecker in Wisconsin during the winter 
months. If you have any information 
let us hear from you. 
Legal Protection. 
We are often confronted with the 
quest ion, what good do all the laws do 
" 1 licit we are continually enacting for 
the protection of our avifauna. And 
this question is given point by appar¬ 
ently increasing scarcity of certain 
species. In the attempt to explain this 
anomalous situation two suppositions 
are put forward. It is argued either 
that the laws are not good, or that 
they are of no avail in any event. And 
there is a good deal of truth in both 
contentions. It. is often also pointed 
out with great force that these laws 
will be of no value as long as there is 
no determined public opinion in their 
favor. While it is true that public 
opinion is not what we wish it might 
be, and while laws alone now matter 
how perfect will never solve the situa¬ 
tion, yet we believe that there is a 
place for statutory protection. 
In the first place, there are many 
people who will give up what we con¬ 
sider practices injurious to the welfare 
of the birds if there is a law forbid¬ 
ding them. Secondly, a good law on 
the statute books is a weapon in our 
favor, for there are those who, tho 
they may be but slightly interested 
personally, will side with us on the 
ethical question of law enforcement. 
More important results, tho based on 
those above, are the uniformity of reg¬ 
ulations and the suppression of certain 
practices which public opinion finds it 
very difficult to bring about. In these 
two particulars we have made consid¬ 
erable progress of late in this country. 
The Weeks-McLean Bill and the regu¬ 
lations issued by the Bureau of Bio¬ 
logical Survey are models at least in 
this country. As an example of the 
suppression of undesirable practices, we 
would cite the Tariff Proviso putting 
an end to Plume Traffic. Powerful as 
was public sentiment in this case, it 
was not nearly strong enough to stop 
the wearing of aigrettes, and the like 
until it expressed itself as a law. What 
importance European Bird Lovers at¬ 
tach to these legal achievements we 
will show elsewhere. 
