FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 24, 1912 
2 : 5 C 
if he does not attract the notice of the flock 
passing overhead. He is being used all unknown 
to himself to deceive his friends who are still 
free and to make them think that here is a fine 
feeding place away from all danger. For is not 
one of their number already at the feast? But 
no, they do not see him, or if they do they are 
still skeptical. Very well, then, here goes the 
flyer. And up we fling him in the air, but he 
goes for only a hundred feet, and then we haul 
him back toward the bed of chaff. Surely with 
these two already down there having a gorge of 
buckwheat, it must be safe! 
Now see the flock swiftly change its course 
and sweep around in an ever narrowing circle 
and then swoop down upon the bed of brown 
chaff, almost smothering the poor stool-pigeon. 
But don’t tarry. Pull the rope. Spring the net. 
Confusion ten times confounded follows and such 
a fluttering of wings and straining to get free 
you never saw. Half the flock is caught beneath 
the net. The pigeons, frightened beyond any 
power to describe, put their heads through 
the meshes of the net to fly, but better might a 
human prisoner endeavor with his bare fist to 
beat down the iron door of his cell. There is 
no escape. 
But don’t waste time. Another flock will be 
here any moment. What will they do with one 
hundred and fifty fluttering, terrified pigeons? 
That man will show you. What in the world 
is he doing? Can my eyes deceive me? Is it 
possible! Yes, his method of killing his prison¬ 
ers is swift and sure. He bites each one in the 
head. It looks cruel, but there could really be 
no speedier death. The skull of a pigeon is thin 
as an egg shell, and it is easily cracked between 
the teeth of a man. 
I have known two men in one day in the 
manner just described to catch twelve hundred 
T HE Weeks bill for protection of migratiory 
birds, including in its provisions wild geese, 
wild swans, brant, wild ducks, snipe, plover, 
rail, woodcock, wild pigeons, and all other migra¬ 
tory game birds, which measure was favorably 
reported from the house committee on agricul¬ 
ture with the recommendation that it pass, has 
been stricken from the calendar of the House of 
Representatives on the objection of Representa¬ 
tive Mondell, of Wyoming. Mr. Weeks, of Mass¬ 
achusetts who had charge of the bill, used every 
effort to have the bill considered by the House, 
declaring that the people of the country were in 
favor of the passage of the measure, and that if 
the House of Representatives had the oppor¬ 
tunity, the bill would pass, but Mr. Mondell 
strenuously objected to the consideration of 
what he termed an unconstitutional measure 
which in reality menaced the rights of the peo¬ 
ple and the States. Of course this declaration 
pigeons. And in every community there would 
be several bough houses and as many fluttering 
stool-pigeons. And so the work of slaughter 
went on. 
There was a nesting place that I know of 
in the northern part of Lycoming county about 
thirty miles from Williamsport. I did not see 
it! myself, as I was then a boy, but I have 
talked with others who did. Here there was at 
times' a real massacre of pigeons. The bird 
butchers would wait until the squabs were just 
ready to fly, and then they would go from tree 
to tree with clubs and beat down the young vic¬ 
tims. The limbs of the trees would almost break 
under the great load of nests, so that it was easy 
for the pot-hunters to carry away bagfuls of 
dead squabs. 
It was a curious fact that the young birds 
in this particular place were often fed upon wild 
rice, as was shown when they were killed. The 
nearest point that this kind of rice grows is in 
Carolina. Pigeon hunters said that the male 
birds carried this rice 500 miles for their young. 
Their southward flights on these errands of 
parental affection must have always been at 
night, for they were never seen to go. 
Another curious fact I myself witnessed. It 
was customary for some of the bird catchers to 
keep several hundred wild pigeons for experi¬ 
mental or breeding purposes. But they died very 
rapidly in captivity even when well housed and 
fed. Moreover, they would hatch but very 
few young; in fact, it was impossible to 
keep a flock alive for any considerable length 
of time. 
John Burroughs says the goldfinch and the 
striped chipmunk almost vanished only to return 
again. Perhaps some day we shall again see 
the heavens darkened with the wild pigeon on 
his annual pilgrimage northward. 
brought forth a spirited debate between the 
supporters of the measure and the Wyoming 
objector who it must be admitted is not author¬ 
ity either on constitutional law or bird life, and 
bird preservation. The object of the Weeks 
bill is to protect migratory and insectivorous 
game birds of the United States. The House 
Committee on Agriculture having jurisdiction 
of the bill extended public hearings on the 
measure and a great amount of testimony was 
produced before the committee to sustain the 
provisions of the bill. It appeared that most 
of the States of the Union have laws more or 
less effective in the protection of game or other 
birds resident and breeding within their 
borders, and by special reservation in the bill 
none of its provisions are to be deemed to 
affect or to interfere with these laws as to such 
birds or to prevent the States from enacting 
laws and regulations in aid of the regulations 
of the Department of Agriculture provided for 
in this bill. Through these local laws, however, 
it appeared that because of their nomadic 
habits little or no real protection was afforded 
waterfowl and other migratory game birds, and 
therefore, to secure for them adequate protec¬ 
tion, particularly in the spring, when they are 
on their way to their nesting grounds, the com¬ 
mittee believed that they should be placed under 
the custody of the Federal Government. 
It was also shown to the committee that 
unless immediate Congressional protection 
were afforded some of the most valuable species 
of these nomads would soon become extinct. 
It was clearly shown that the economic aspect 
was two-fold. The game birds yield a con¬ 
siderable and important amount of highly valued 
food, and if given adequate protection will be 
a constant valued asset. The insectivorous mi¬ 
gratory birds destroy annually thousands of 
tons of noxious weed seed and billions of harm¬ 
ful insects. These birds are the deadliest foes 
yet found of the boll weevil, the gypsy and 
brown-tailed moths, and other like pests. The 
yearly value of a meadow lark or a quail in a 
ten-acre field of cotton, corn, or wheat is 
reckoned by expert entomologists at $5. The 
damage done to growing crops in the United 
States by insects each year is estimated by ex¬ 
perts of the Department of Agriculture at about 
$800,000,000. 
The majority of the committee believed that 
to give Federal protection to these birds is no 
invasion of State rights, for being migratory, 
they belong to no single State, but to all the 
States over which they pass and within which 
they simply pause for food, rest, or breeding. 
It was believed by the committee that the ques¬ 
tion is purely a Federal one, and that under the 
strictest construction of the Constitution these 
migratory birds may and should be subject and 
entitled to National protection by act of Con¬ 
gress. The committee further declared that the 
interstate bird is as interstate commerce and 
should be protected by and subject to the laws 
of the nation. 
Forty-four of the forty-eight States of the 
Union were represented before the committee 
during the hearings on the bill, by persons, 
telegrams, petitions, or letters, either through 
their governors, or their State game commis¬ 
sioners, or through the many sportsmen’s as¬ 
sociations interested in bird protection. All 
favored this legislation being added to the 
Federal statutes, and three of the States, 
Oklahoma, New York and Massachusetts have 
indorsed the proposition by legislative act 
petitioning Congress for the passage of the 
act. 
The Weeks bill is the fifth measure which 
has been introduced in the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives for the protection of migratory birds, 
and but for the objection of Representative 
Mondell, the bill would have passed the House 
and gone to the Senate, where Senator Mc¬ 
Lean, of Connecticut, who is chairman of the 
committee on protection of game, has a similar 
measure which is now before the Senate, hav¬ 
ing been favorably reported for. passage by his 
committee. Mr. Mondell’s objection can only 
temporarily delay this much needed legislation, 
for it is not believed that he can ultimately de¬ 
feat this bill which the hearings before both 
the Senate and House committees have shown 
The Weeks Bill 
By RALEIGH RAINES 
