S SENTIMENT 0F ()RNITIIOLOGY.

“ Hence, in addition to the $90,000 actually expended by the State in destroying 128,571 of its benefactors. it has incurred a loss to its agricultural interests of at least $3,857,130, or a total loss of $3,947,130 in a year and a half, which is at the ‘ate of 2,631,420 per annum. In other words, the State has thrown away “2.105 for every dollar saved! And even this does not represent fairly the full loss, for the slaughter of such a vast number of predaceous birds and mammals is almost certain to be followed by a correspondingly enormous increase in the numbers of mice and insects formerly held in check by them, and it will take many years to restore the balance thus blindly destroyed through ignorance of the economic relations of our common birds and manunals.”

To their credit be it said, the legislators of Pennsylvania were not slow to recognize the error which a lack of proper information had caused them to make. A State ornithologist was appointed, and through his efforts this ruinous and absurd law was repealed.

1111893 the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy of the Department of Agriculture issued a report upon the food of the Hawk" and Owls of the United States based upon the examination of the contents of 2,690 stomachs. It proves conclusively the value of most of these misjudged birds to the agriculturist. It is need- less to draw a comparison between legislation based upon information derived from such reports and that based solely on ignorant preju— dices.

The Sentiment of ()rnillinlng/j/.—\Ye may accept as true Prof. Morse’s estimate of the value of birds to the scientist; we need not question their importance in the economics of Nature, but we are still far from recognizingr the possibilities of their influence upon our lives. Au inherent love of birds is an unrleniable psychological fact which finds its most frequent expression in the general fondness for cage- birds. If we can learn to regard the birds of the woods and fields with all the affection we lavish on our poor captives in their gilded homes, what an inexhaustible store of enjoyment is ours!

It is not alone the beauty. power of song. or intelligence of birds which attract. us. it is their human attributes. Man exhibits hardly atrait which he will not find reflected in the life of a bird. Love, hate; courage. fea : anger, pleasure: vanity. modesty; virtue, vice; constancy. ficlt'leness; generosity. selfishness: wit, curiosity. memory, reason—we may find them all exhibited in the. lives of birds. Birds have thus become symbolic of certain human characteristics. and the more common species are so interwoven in our art and literature that by name. at least they are known to all of us. Shakespeare makes over six hundred references to birds or bird-life. If we should rob